And it was into this atmosphere of gloom and of purposeless misanthropy that Louisa Harris brought this morning the cheering sunshine of her own indomitable optimism. She knew of course from the first that the subject which interested every one in the house more than any other subject could ever do was not to be mentioned in Lord Radclyffe's presence. But she was quite shrewd enough to see that dear old Luke--unsophisticated and none too acute an observer--had overestimated his uncle's indifference to the all-absorbing matter. The old man's face--usually a mirror of contemptuous cynicism--looked, to the woman's keener insight, distinctly troubled, and his surly silence was even more profound than hitherto. He hardly did more than bid Louisa a curt, "How de do?" when she entered, and then relapsed into moroseness wholly unbroken before luncheon was announced. Jim--"in the Blues"--was there when she arrived, and Edie came in a few moments later, breathless and with hat awry and tawny hair flying in all directions, straight from a tussle with the dogs and the sharp wind in the park. Evidently no secret had been made before these two of the strange events which had culminated this very morning in their brother's avowal to Louisa, and the postponement _sine die_ of the wedding. But equally evidently these young creatures absorbed in their own life, their own pursuits and amusements, were not inclined to look on the matter seriously. Their sky had been so absolutely cloudless throughout their lives that it was impossible for them at the moment to realize that the dark shadow on the distant horizon might possibly conceal thunder in its filmy bosom. Edie--just over twenty years of age and already satiated with the excitement of three London seasons, her mind saturated with novel reading and on the lookout for some new sensations--was inclined to look on the affair as an exhilarating interlude between the Shrove Tuesday dance at Wessex House and the first Drawing-Room in May. Jim--"in the Blues"--very eligible as a possible husband for the daughters of ambitious mammas, a trifle spoiled, a little slow of wit, and not a little self-satisfied--dismissed the whole incident as "tommy-rot." When Louisa first greeted them, Edie had whispered excitedly: "Has he told you?" And without waiting for a direct reply had continued, with unabated eagerness: "Awful exciting, don't you think?" But Jim with the elegant drawl peculiar to his kind had suppressed further confidences by an authoritative: "Awful rot I call it, don't you? Luke is soft to worry about it." Strangely enough, at luncheon it was Lord Radclyffe who brought up the subject matter. Edie with the tactlessness of youth had asked a point-blank question: "Well," she said, "when is that wedding to be? and what are we bridesmaids going to wear? I warn you I won't have white--I hate a white wedding." Then as no answer came she said impatiently: