she added, turning to Forrest and Lord Ronald, "will not mind
starting a day or two before we had planned?"

"Not in the least," they assured her.

"And Miss Le Mesurier?" Cecil de la Borne asked. "Will she really
not mind giving up some of these wonderful entertainments?"

Jeanne smiled upon him brilliantly. It was a smile which came so
seldom, and which, when it did come, transformed her face so
utterly, that she seemed like a different person.

"I shall be very glad, indeed," she said, "to leave London. I am
looking forward so much to seeing what the English country is like."

"It will make me very happy," Cecil de la Borne said, bowing over
her hand, "to try and show you."

Her eyes seemed to pass through him, to look out of the crowded
room, as though indeed they had found their way into some corner of
the world where the things which make life lie. It was a lapse from
which she recovered almost immediately, but when she looked at him,
and with a little farewell nod withdrew her hand, the transforming
gleam had passed away.

"And there is the sea, too," she remarked, looking backwards as they
passed out. "I am longing to see that again."