She paused a moment, and then went down the stairs. "It's Sir Samuel Broxbourne, miss," the parlourmaid said. Caroline nodded her head. "Yes; Mrs. Lancing knows. I have a message for him." Caroline's first impression as she opened the drawing-room door was that the young man standing with his back to the fireplace was much too big for the room. Sir Samuel had not troubled to remove his overcoat, and the heavy fur collar on this coat accentuated the squareness and breadth of his shoulders. He always looked red, as if he had just come out of a bath, or had been running; his hair, too, had a touch of red in it. Caroline took all this in at one glance, and she decided right away that he was a very ugly young man. "Mrs. Lancing begs me to say she will be down directly," she said, but she did not advance into the room. Sir Samuel whipped his single eyeglass into what he called his "off" eye, and took a step forward. As Caroline was withdrawing, and the door was half closed, he spoke to her. "Here, I say," he said, "can you ... I mean is there any one in the house who can glue this button on for me?" He pulled off one of his white gloves as he spoke, and held it out to her. With a little frown Caroline turned, paused an instant, and then advanced and took the glove from him. "It's a beastly nuisance when the buttons come off," said Sir Samuel; "the Johnnies that sell gloves ought to do the stitching themselves--eh?..." He was studying Caroline attentively, wondering the while who the deuce she was. He thought he had sampled all the inmates of Mrs. Lancing's small house. Those he had seen he had found very unexciting; but this girl was different. "I think this button is quite firm, it will not come off just yet," said Caroline, and she gave him back the glove. Before he could speak again she had vanished, and the door was shut behind her. Sir Samuel pulled the glove on with a jerk. "D----d fine eyes," he said, "but she knows all about that, and puts frills on in consequence." Mrs. Lancing's door was widely open, and she herself arrayed in all her glory as Caroline mounted the stairs and paused on the landing. "Is he very furious?" asked Mrs. Lancing. "May I admire you?" asked Caroline in reply. "This sort of thing is all so new to me. I have never seen any one in evening dress before, except once, and that was in a fashion paper." Her eyes had a glow in them as she scanned Camilla, over whose white clinging gown Dennis was just slipping a theatre wrap of pink chiffon and chinchilla. "How Betty would love to see you as you are now. She imagines you go to a fairy-world every night, and if she saw you she would believe in her dreams." "I feel as if I were coming to pieces," Camilla laughed. "But I simply detest being hurried! Dennis, put a safety-pin in here, and you need not sit up. I have my key." As she was passing out Mrs. Lancing paused by Caroline and kissed her lightly.