have all the moonlight there is, Peter." Her white figure
fluttered toward the door. "Good-night!" she said, drooping her
little head to choke a yawn. A moment later he heard her laughing
with Alix.

"You fool--you fool--you fool!" Peter said to himself, and he felt
an emotion like shame, a little real compunction that he could so
utterly misread her innocence. He felt it not only wrong in him,
but somehow staining and hurtful to her.




CHAPTER XIII


Again Peter reckoned without Cherry. It was only the next day,
when he was entering the Palace court for his lunch, that he
experienced a sudden and violent emotion. His thoughts were, at
the moment, far from Cherry, and he had fancied himself in a
hurry. But every other feeling but excitement was obliterated at
the sight of a slender, girlishly made woman, in a pongee gown,
and a limp brown hat covered with poppies, waiting in the lounge.

Peter went toward her, and the colour rushed into Cherry's face.
Half a dozen women had been furtively studying her, and one of
them now said to a man, "Yes, she really is--extraordinarily
pretty." But Cherry and Peter saw and heard them not. It was the
first time they had accidentally encountered each other, and it
had a special place of its own in the history of their lives.