"Clodagh!" he repeated--"Clodagh! What a pretty name!" Once more, and without apparent reason, Clodagh felt her heart beat unevenly. With a short laugh, she turned to Barnard. "And you, Mr. Barnard," she said hastily, "do you like the name?" Barnard made a suave gesture. "I say that it fits its owner." Once more she laughed with a tinge of nervous excitement. "A very guarded statement!" she said brightly. "I think we had better talk about something else. Who are the people I am to meet here? Mr. Barnard kindly wants to provide me with new friends." She turned again to Deerehurst. "Indeed!" Once more he lifted the gold-rimmed glass, this time to study Barnard. "Yes," broke in Barnard genially. "Mrs. Milbanke's husband and I have met here to talk shop; and I have a shrewd presentiment that, unless we provide her with a diverting channel or two, Mrs. Milbanke may find Venice a bore." "I could never do that." Clodagh turned an animated face towards the dark flotilla, on the outskirts of which their own gondola was hovering. "But, my dear lady, even Venice can become uninteresting and dry--paradoxical as it may sound," Barnard returned airily. "My proposal," he explained, "is that I should make Frances Hope and Mrs. Milbanke known to each other. Don't you think the idea brilliant?" "Quite!--quite!" Serracauld looked up interestedly. "You are a man of ideas, Barny!" Lord Deerehurst said nothing, but again his eyeglass gleamed in the uncertain light. "What is Lady Frances Hope like?" Clodagh asked, suddenly withdrawing her gaze from the massed gondolas that swayed in the musicians' lantern light. "Like?" Serracauld repeated vaguely. "How would you describe her, uncle? The sort of woman who does everything twice as well as anybody else--and at half the cost--eh?" Lord Deerehurst gave one of his thin, metallic laughs. "I always think," he said slowly, "that if Frances Hope had been the child of a milkman instead of a marquis, she would have made a singularly successful adventuress. No reflections cast upon the late Sammy, my dear Barnard!" He waved his white hand, and the dim, uncertain light gleamed on a magnificent diamond ring. Barnard laughed with a tolerant air. "Rather an apt deduction!" he admitted. "I am inclined to agree with you. Frances is just one of those shrewd, plain-looking, attractive women who enjoy climbing steep ladders. It is rather a pity she was born on the top rung. But I believe we have frightened Mrs. Milbanke!" He turned suddenly and caught Clodagh's expression, as she sat forward, listening intently. At the mention of her name, she laughed quickly, and leant back against the cushions of her seat. "What do you mean?" she asked with a touch of constraint. "Am I as childish as all that?" They all looked at her; and Barnard gave an amused laugh. "Come!" he cried banteringly. "There's no use telling me you weren't just a little shocked." "Shocked?"