The game ended in the defeat of the Aikenheads, and the players gathered round Winnie. Dennehy was grossly triumphant, and raged again when his late opponents plainly told him that his share in the victory was less than nothing. He declared that the "moral effect" of his presence at the net was incalculable. "That quality is certainly possessed by your strokes," Stephen admitted. Under cover of the friendly wrangle, Winnie turned to Ledstone, who had sat down beside her. She found him already regarding her; a consciousness that she desired his attention made her flush a little. "How easily you play! I mean, you make the game look so easy." "Well, if I want to impress the gallery, old Dennehy's rather a useful partner to have, isn't he? But I did use to play a good bit once, before I went into business." "No time now? I'm told you go to London as much as three days a week!" "I see Mrs. Aikenhead's been giving me away. Did she tell you anything else?" "Well, she told me what you looked like, but I know that for myself now." "Did she do me justice, Mrs. Maxon?" He had pleasant blue eyes, and used them to enhance the value of his words. "I don't want to put you and her at loggerheads," smiled Winnie. "Ah, you mean she didn't?" Winnie's smile remained mysterious. Here was a game that she could play, though she had perforce abstained from it for many many days. It is undeniable that she came back to it with the greater zest. "I shall ask Mrs. Aikenhead what she said." "That won't tell you what I think about it." "Then how am I to find out?" "Is it so important to you to know?" "I feel just a sort of--well, mild interest, I must admit." There seemed ground for supposing that lawn-tennis was not the only game that he had played, either. "Mere good looks don't go for very much in a man, do they?" said Winnie. "There now, if you've given me anything with one hand, you've taken it away with the other!" "What is your business, Mr. Ledstone?" "I draw designs--decorative designs for china, and brocades, and sometimes fans. I can do a lot of my work down here--as Mrs. Aikenhead might have told you, instead of representing me as a lazy dog, doing nothing four days in the week." "I've been led into doing you an injustice," Winnie admitted with much gravity. "Is it a good business?" "Grossly underpaid," he laughed. "And I may have eaten off one of your plates?" "Yes, or sat on one of my cushions, or fanned yourself with one of my fans." "It seems to serve as an introduction, doesn't it?" "Oh, more than that, please! I think it ought to be considered as establishing a friendship." The other three had strolled off towards the house. Winnie rose, to follow them. As Ledstone took his place by her side, she turned her eyes on him. "I haven't so many friends as to be very difficult about that," she said, with a note of melancholy in her voice.