"On the contrary it's simply dulness, and because I'm lazy--I----" but he left his sentence unfinished, for Miss Campbell's attention was palpably wavering, and her glance spoke of approaching deliverance. He looked over his shoulder to see Darcy advancing with Lieutenant Kingsland. The two officers had met in the crush a few minutes before, and the Colonel had lost no time in taking Kingsland to task for his stupidity of the past night. "I'm no end sorry," the Lieutenant said, in very apologetic tones. "That doesn't give me my letter," growled the Colonel. "I know I'm an awful duffer," assented Kingsland, "but when he came up behind me and asked questions about it, I was so staggered I let him take it right out of my hands. It wasn't addressed, you know, and I naturally couldn't say who gave it to me." "I should hope not indeed." "Well, what shall I do--ask him for it?" "No, no, leave it alone; you've blundered enough. You all meet at a country house to-morrow." "Yes." "Well, trust its recovery to her; she'll get it, if he has it with him. If he leaves it behind in London so much the easier for me." "But I thought you were coming down----" "You think a great deal too much, and your actions are----" "Sh!" whispered the Lieutenant, laying his hand on Darcy's arm. "He's looking our way, he'll hear us." Stanley had not caught a word of the previous conversation, but a whisper sometimes carries much farther than the ordinary tones of the voice, and he heard the caution and saw the gesture which accompanied it, very distinctly. The Colonel and the Lieutenant were close upon him by this time, and Stanley, who had no wish to be recognised, began to move off, and disappeared in the crowd, determined to make the best of his way to the door. He was terribly bored. He was not destined to escape quite so easily, however, for Lady Isabelle McLane sighted him in transit, and in a moment more had drawn him into a protecting corner with two seats, and settled down to a serious conversation. "I hear you're going down to the Roberts'," she said; "I'm invited too." "Then I'm all the more sorry that I'm not to be there," he replied. "You surprise me; I supposed your acceptance was of some standing. I hope there's nothing wrong, that your chief hasn't forgotten his position, and turned fractious?" "Oh, no, my chief behaves very well," Stanley hastened to assure her, "but the fact is--I, well, I don't find it convenient." "Or, in other words, you've some reason for not wanting to go." He assented, having learned by long and bitter experience, that when a woman makes up her mind to exert her faculties of instinct, it is easier by far to acquiesce at once in any conclusion to which she may have jumped, however erroneous. "Will you be shocked if I say I'm glad of it?" The Secretary shrugged his shoulders; he thought he knew what was coming.