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Then Henriette peeped out of the door and saw that the message she was being sent upon was in vain, and went back; and immediately Zara appeared. Her dress was pale gray to-night with her uncle's pearls and both Lady Anningford and Tristram noticed that her eyes were slumberous and had in them that smoldering fierceness of pain.
Next day Lady Anningford called, as she had promised, at Claridge's, and found Mrs. Brown at home, although it was only three o'clock in the afternoon. She had not two minutes to wait in the well-furnished first-floor sitting-room, but during that time she noticed there were one or two things about which showed the present occupant was a woman of taste, and there were such quantities of flowers.
Lady Anningford had been rejoined by the Crow, and now stood watching them. She and her companion were silent for a moment, and then: "By Jove!" Colonel Lowerby said. "She is certainly worth going to hell for, to look at even and they don't appear as if they would take long on the road." "Oh, Crow, dear, what are we to do, then?" said Lady Anningford.
She is going to say it will be their last chance before they get to King Mark. Won't it all be perfect?" "Well, I suppose you know best," the Crow said, with his wise old head on one side. "But they are at a ticklish pass in their careers, I tell you. The balance might go either way. Don't make it too hard for them, out of mistaken kindness." "You are tiresome, Crow!" retorted Lady Anningford.
She felt deliciously moved. She had often said to her friend, Anne Anningford, when they had been talking, that she did not like elderly men; she disliked to see their hair getting thin, and their chins getting fat, and their little habits and mannerisms growing pronounced.
"Hector!" almost screamed Lady Anningford. "What has come over you, my dear boy?" "I will tell you," he said; and his voice, which had been full of passion, now melted into a tone of deep tenderness.
So the whole dreaded moment passed off with rejoicing, and presently Lady Anningford and the fond father made their exit, and left the lovers alone. "Oh, Francis, isn't the world lovely!" murmured Ethelrida from the shelter of his arms.
Her figure in its slenderness was a thing which dressmakers adored; there was so little of it that any frock could be made to look well on it. Lady Ethelrida did everything with moderation. She was not mad about any sport or any fad. She loved her father, her aunt, her cousins of the Tancred family, and her friend, Lady Anningford. She was, in short, a fine character and a great lady.
Lady Ethelrida asked, as she stopped, with the gallant old Crow, flushed and smiling by the daïs, where the financier and Lady Anningford sat. "If you ever do, I, as the Lady of the Castle, ask you to 'tread a measure' with me!" "No one could resist such, an invitation," he answered, and put his arm around her for a valse. "I do love dancing," she said, as they went along very well.
"Well, you have made me thoroughly uncomfortable," Lady Anningford said. "I shall get hold of him to-night, and see what I can do." "Then, mind you are careful, Queen Anne that is all that I can say," and at that moment, the Duke joining them, the tête-
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