"I am sorry," he answered, "but I must go up quite early; my mother is not well," he explained. "Oh!" said Camilla; she was at once reassured "I am _so_ sorry. I hope you are not very anxious? But you must tell me about it a little later." And gathering her clinging black draperies in her hand she smiled up at him and then fluttered through the doorway and vanished. Whilst the other women were talking together, Mrs. Brenton found herself alone with Camilla. "I want to say something to you," she said in a low voice. "Is it anything nice?" asked Camilla, with a faint smile. Mrs. Brenton touched the black chiffon that bordered Camilla's beautiful shoulders with a caressing hand. "I don't want you to play for such heavy points to-night, darling," she said; "it is all very well if the money comes back to you, but I am afraid you have been losing rather heavily since you came down here, haven't you? Sometimes I feel tempted," Mrs. Brenton went on, "to impose a _maximum_ sum for points here, but I suppose I should get myself well hated if I did! People would say it is a free country, and they ought to do what they like with their own." "That is why you are scolding me," said Camilla, with her pretty smile. Mrs. Brenton shook her head. "You are not other people to me, and I do hate to see you risking too much, Camilla." Camilla turned and just lightly kissed Mrs. Brenton's hand. "Oh, we must risk something sometimes!" she said impatiently; then she added, "Don't worry about me, dear old thing, I really haven't lost very much, and I dare say I shall get it all back to-night. I feel in luck. Look"--she held out her wrist--"isn't this a sweet thing? Sammy has just given it to me to wear as a charm. He brought it from some weird place in America, and declares it is a magic stone, and that I shall have everything I want now that I wear it. I must go and show it to Ena Bayliss," Camilla said, with a wicked smile. "She will be _so_ jealous! She rather affects Sammy, you know...." When the men came there was no opportunity for a little chat between Mrs. Lancing and Haverford, for the card-players seated themselves immediately at the tables. Mrs. Brenton, who was not a bridge fanatic, beckoned to Rupert Haverford to come and sit with her in her pet corner. She teased him heartily for a little while about his breakdown that afternoon. "You will never get _me_ in that magnificent car of yours again," she said. "Why don't you have horses? You look just the sort of man who would have good animals, and know how to treat them well."