It was of course entirely on Roger's account that this unwilling guest of America was her guest still. For three weeks now had the General been watching the affair between Roger and Daphne Floyd. It had gone with such a rush at first, such a swing and fervour, that the General had felt that any day might bring the _denouement_. It was really impossible to desert the lad at such a crisis, especially as Laura was so excitable and anxious, and so sure to make her brother pay for it if he failed to support her views and ambitions at the right moment. The General moreover felt the absolute necessity of getting to know something more about Miss Floyd, her character, the details of her fortune and antecedents, so that when the great moment came he might be prepared. But the astonishing thing was that of late the whole affair seemed to have come to some stupid hitch! Roger had been behaving like a very cool hand--too cool by half in the General's opinion. What the deuce did he mean by hanging about these Boston ladies, if his affections were really fixed on Miss Daphne?--or his ambitions, which to the uncle seemed nearer the truth. "Well, where is the nephew?" said Cecilia Boyson's voice in his ear. The General turned. He saw a sharp, though still young face, a thin and willowy figure, attired in white silk, a _pince-nez_ on the high-pitched nose, and a cool smile. Unconsciously his back stiffened. Miss Boyson invariably roused in him a certain masculine antagonism. "I should be glad if you would tell me," he said, with some formality. "There are two or three people here to whom he should be introduced." "Has he been picnicking with the Maddisons?" The voice was shrill, perhaps malicious. "I believe they took him to Arlington, and somewhere else afterwards." "Ah," said Cecilia, "there they are." The General looked towards the door and saw his nephew enter, behind a mother and daughter whom, as it seemed to him, their acquaintances in the crowd around them greeted with a peculiar cordiality; the mother, still young, with a stag-like carriage of the head, a long throat, swathed in white tulle, and grizzled hair, on which shone a spray of diamonds; the daughter, equally tall and straight, repeating her mother's beauty with a bloom and radiance of her own. Innocent and happy, with dark eyes and a soft mouth, Miss Maddison dropped a little curtsey to the presidential pair, and the room turned to look at her as she did so. "A very sweet-looking girl," said the General warmly. "Her father is, I think, a professor." "He was. He is now just a writer of books. But Elsie was brought up in Cambridge. How did Mr. Roger know them?" "His Eton tutor told him to go and see them." "I thought Miss Floyd expected him to-day?" said Miss Boyson carelessly, adjusting her eyeglass. "It was a mistake, a misunderstanding," replied the General hurriedly. "Miss Floyd's party is put off till next week." "Daphne is just coming in," said Miss Boyson.