"Oh, that's delightful!" she exclaimed gleefully. "We will have such a nice ride! You shall see Queenie canter; she does go so fast! Good-bye now!" She tripped away by the side of her maid, turning round more than once to wave her hand to us. Then we hurried along to our rooms, which were at the end of the wide, marble-pillared corridor and opened one into the other. Our portmanteaux had been placed in readiness, so dressing was not a tedious business. I had finished first and lounged in an easy chair, watching Cecil struggle with a refractory white tie. "How pretty your sister is, Cis!" I remarked. "Think so? She's rather an odd little thing," declared her brother, absently surveying himself at last with satisfaction in the long pier-glass. "Didn't know you'd ever seen her before. I say"--with sudden emphasis--"isn't Aggie Hamilton a jolly good-looking girl?" "I've scarcely seen her yet," I reminded him. "Rather a chatterbox, isn't she?" "Chatterbox? Not she!" Cecil protested indignantly. "Why----" The rumble of a gong reached us from below. Cecil stopped short in his speech and hurried me out of the room. "Come along, sharp!" he exclaimed. "That means dinner in ten minutes, and I promised to get down into the drawing-room first and introduce you to Aggie. Come on!" We descended into the hall and a tall footman threw open the door of the long suite of drawing and ante-rooms in which the guests at the Castle were rapidly assembling. To me, who had seen nothing of the sort before, it was a brilliant sight. Four rooms, all of stately dimensions and all draped with amber satin of the same shade, were thrown into one by the upraising of heavy, clinging curtains, and each one seemed filled with groups of charmingly-dressed women and little knots of men. A low, incessant buzz of conversation floated about in the air, which was laden with the scent of exotics and dainty perfumes. The light was brilliant, but soft, for the marble figures around the walls held out silver lamps covered with gauzy rose-coloured shades. We passed through two of the rooms before we found the young lady of whom Cecil was in search. Then we came upon her suddenly, sitting quite alone and idly turning over the pages of a book of engravings. Cecil jogged me excitedly with his elbow in a manner which elsewhere would have brought down anathemas and possibly retribution upon his head. As it was, however, I had to bear the pain like a Spartan. "I say, isn't she stunning?" he whispered. I answered in the affirmative, carefully removing myself from the range of his elbow. Then we approached her, and she closed the book of engravings with a comical air of relief and made room for us beside her.