"Why did not you tell me of your past life? I have told you everything about mine." "Because you had only nice innocent things to tell. My story would not bear telling--and why should you want to know?" "There should not be a wall between friends--such friends as we have been--like brother and sister." "Do brothers tell old love stories? Stale, barren stories of loves that are dead?" "Perhaps not. I oughtn't to have spoken about it. Come and talk to Aunt Mildred. Her carriage has been announced, and she'll be huffed if we don't go to her." Claude followed meekly, and in five minutes Lady Okehampton had forgotten that it was eleven o'clock, and that her horses had been waiting half an hour. He had a curious power of making women pleased with themselves, and with him. He always flattered them; but his flattery was so discreet and subtle as to be imperceptible. It was rather his evident delight in being with them and talking to them that pleased, than anything that he said. "Come to River Mead for next Sunday. It will be my last week-end party before we go to Scotland," Lady Okehampton said to him before she bade good night. "Vera and Susan are coming. We shall be a small party, and there will be plenty of bridge." Claude accepted the invitation as he took Lady Okehampton to her carriage. "I wish Provana were not so much away from his wife," she said. "It is a very difficult position for Vera." "Vera is not _la première venue_. She knows how to take care of herself." "That's what they always say about women; but is it true in her case? She is very young, and rather simple, and knows very little of the world." "Not after six years as the wife of a financial Croesus?" murmured Claude, while he arranged the matron's voluminous mantle over her shoulders as carefully as if the outside atmosphere had been arctic. He knew that the drift of her speech had been by way of warning for him. Dear, inconsistent soul! It was so like her to invite him to spend three days with her niece in the _sans gêne_ of a riverside villa, and five minutes afterwards to sound a note of warning.