Part 16 (1/2)

”Suggests a hotel, doesn't it?” said the Irish apartments are on this floor, and the baths, and boudoirs, and what-not The garret is above, and that's where we deposit our farievances, store our stock of spitefulness, and hide all the little devils thatup froood-humour, contentment, happiness and mirth are perht also add beauty, for you can't conceive any of the others without it, ood-natured for a ed by beauty appreciative, and as for being contented, happy orthe h the door behind them, ”do Mr Barnes, will ye, and fetch me from Mr De Soto's room when you've finished I leave you to Dabson's tender mercies The saints preserve us! Look at the et out your brush and dauber first of all He's been floundering in a bog”

The jovial Irish Barnes to be ”done” by the silent, swift-ly well-trained He ” the visitor; barely fifteen minutes elapsed before O'Dowd's return

Presently they went downstairs together Lahout the house A warht even say tes, which now seemed to reflect rather than to project their hues; a fire crackled in the cavernous fireplace at the end of the living-roorateful blaze were the ladies of Green Fancy

Barnes are of a quickening of his pulses as he advanced with O'Dowd De Soto was there ahead of theracefully in front of the fire, his feet widespread, his hands in his pockets Anotherblondskill, the retention of a cigarette which see itself froh inactive lips

SHE was there, standing slightly aloof from the others, but evidently a the in her eyes, and experienced a sensation that oefully akin to confusion

He had the feeling that he would be absolutely speechless when presented to her; in the full, lulow of those lovely eyes he would lose consciousness, ive her,--and all the rest of the of the kind happened Everything went off quite naturally

He favoured Miss Caave her hand to hiestive of tolerance, although it certainly would have been recorded by a less sensitive person than Barnes as ”ripping”

In reply to his perfunctory ”delighted, I'm sure, etc,” she said, quite clearly: ”Oh, now I remember I was sure I had seen you before, Mr Barnes You are thelike a mushroohtened you,” he said; ”whereupon you vanished like the lutton”

He had thrilled at the sound of her voice It was the low, deliberate voice of the woht the als fell upon her shi+ning hair; it glistened like gold She wore a siown of white, softened over the shoulders and neck with a fall of rare vallenciennes lace There was no jewelry,--not even a ring on her slender, tapering fingers Oddly enough, now that he stood beside her, she was not so tall as he had believed her to be the day before

The crown of her silken head came but little above his shoulder As she had appeared to hi the trees he would have sworn that she was but little below his own height, which was a liberal six feet He recalled a flash of wonder on that occasion; she had seemed so much taller than the woman at the cross-roads that he was almost convinced that she could not, after all, be the saht that he remembered, and he marvelled once more

Mrs Collier, the hostess, was an elderly, heavy-featured woman, decidedly over-dressed Barnes knew her kind One encounters her everywhere: the otherwise intelligent woman who has no sense about her clothes Mrs Van dyke, her daughter, was a wo sort of way She too was rather resplendent in a black jet gown, and she was liberally bestreith jewels Much to Barnes's surprise, she possessed a soft, gentle speaking-voice and a quiet, h instead of the boisterous tones and cackle that he always associated with her type The lackadaisical gentleman with the moustache turned out to be her husband

”My brother is unable to be with us to-night, Mr Barnes,” explained Mrs Collier ”Mr O'Dowd may have told you that he is an invalid

Quite rarely is he well enough to leave his roo much better of late, but now his nerves are all torn to pieces by this shooting affair Theinspected to-day by the authorities upset hirets to you Another ti to-night He wanted so much to talk with you about the quaint places you have described so char One cannot read your descriptions without really envying the people who live in those enchanted--”

”Ahehed O'Doho actually had read the articles and could see nothing alluring in a prospect that contemplated barren, snoildernesses in the Andes ”The only advantage I can see in living up there,” he said, with a sly wink at Barnes, ”is that one has all the privileges of death without being put to the expense of burial”

”How very extraordinary, Mr O'Dowd,” said Mrs Collier, lifting her lorgnon

”Mrs Collier has been reading my paper on the chateau country in France,” said Barnes mendaciously (It had not yet been published, but what of that?)

”Perfectly delightful,” said Mrs Collier, and at once changed the subject

De Soto's cocktails came in Miss Cameron did not take one O'Dowd proposed a toast

”To the rascals ent gunning for the other rascals But for thereeable colass stopped half-way to his lips

An instant later he drained it He accepted the toast as a compliment from the whilom Irishman, and not as a tribute to the prowess of those rewsohtedness of the ood one, De Soto”

The table in the spacious dining-roo, narrow Italian boards, unhteen people could have been seated without crowding, and when the seven took their places wide intervals separated theuests close together, asone end or the centre of the table Except for scattered doylies, the slorious patina to this huge old board, with tiny cracks running like veins across its surface

Decorations were scant A half dozen big candlesticks, ecclesiastical in character, were placed at proper intervals, and at each end of the table there was a shallow, alabaster dish containing pansies The serving plates were of silver Especially beautiful were the long-stelasses They were blue and white and of a design and quality no longer obtainable except at great cost The aesthetic Barnes was not slow to appreciate the rarity of the glassware and the chaste beauty of the serving plates