you are fretting, so I have to be so demmed quick about the business, so
as not to keep you in suspense too long. ... And now I can't take Ffoulkes
away from his young wife, and Tony and the others are so mighty slow."

"Percy!" she said once more with tender earnestness.

"I know, I know," he said with a slight frown of self-reproach. "La! but I
don't deserve your solicitude. Heavens know what a brute I was for
years, whilst I neglected you, and ignored the noble devotion which I,
alas! do even now so little to deserve.

She would have said something more, but was interrupted by the
entrance of Juliette Marny into the room.

"Some of your guests have arrived, Lady Blakeney," said the young girl,
apologising for her seeming intrusion. "I thought you would wish to
know."

Juliette looked very young and girlish in a simple white gown, without a
single jewel on her arms or neck. Marguerite regarded her with
unaffected approval.

"You look charming to-night, Mademoiselle, does she not, Sir Percy?"

"Thanks to your bounty," smiled Juliette, a trifle sadly. "Whilst I dressed
to-night, I felt how I should have loved to wear my dear mother's jewels,
of which she used to be so proud."

"We must hope that you will recover them, dear, some day," said
Marguerite vaguely, as she led the young girl out of the small study