The evening was a dull and tiresome one for him, and when he got to his rooms that night he spent two or three hours in deep thought on the subject of Rachel, and was surprised and ill pleased to find how deeply he felt the disappointment at not having seen her. He remembered where he had heard talk about the Van Santens, the lively and charming Americans who had supplied a fresh zest that year to the entertainments of London society. It was at the Aldingtons’ that he had heard the family discussed, and Arthur Aldington had been quite proud of being invited to their house, as the Americans had found open to them the doors of many houses which would have been rigidly closed to English people of the standing which the Van Santens occupied in their native country. So on the following Sunday he went down to the Aldingtons’ house on the river, where they spent the summer months, and found out all he could about this American family of whom Lady Jennings disapproved. Arthur was delighted to talk about them, and expatiated upon the superior charm of American over English girls, and especially about the dainty beauty and grace of Cora Van Santen, who, he said, was quite the most charming girl he had met in London that season. “Would you like to know them?” asked Arthur, quite proud to introduce his handsome friend among his new and smart acquaintances. “If so, I’ll take you down in the car one Sunday. They keep open house on Sunday always, whether in town or in the country; and I have a general invitation, and can bring a friend when I like.” Gerard caught at the chance of seeing these people, and of deciding whether Lady Jennings could have any serious complaint to make against them, or whether, as he thought more likely, she had merely made use of them as an excuse for breaking the relationship with the young protégée who had offended her by her erratic ways. The two young men went down the very next Sunday to the Priory, which proved to be a very much modernized old house, which the Americans had rented furnished from an English baronet. It was a charming old place; and although these newly arrived rich people had brought down with them from town, and even across with them from New York, certain novelties necessary to their comfort, they had had discretion enough to avoid swamping the old with the new so that the house presented an appearance of refined comfort and luxury most attractive to the eye. The family consisted of five persons, and the first thing that Gerard, who had grown keen in observation of late, noted about them was that they all represented different types in form and feature. Delia, the eldest girl, was what Arthur Aldington irreverently called the nut-cracker type, and was a showy, tall woman, some thirty years of age, vivacious, talkative, and amusing.