"He has done that for me himself," she thought. "The boy respects me; I shall wear his flowers. They are beautiful too," she added, holding them off at arm's length to admire them--"the most beautiful of them all." Almost immediately after she returned to the drawing room Mr. Price was shown in. He was the person of all others at that moment in Malta whom she would most have liked to see could she have chosen, and her face brightened at once when he entered. "I have been dining with your husband's regiment to-night," he explained, "and I found that he could not come back for you to take you to the ball, and that therefore you would have to go alone; and so I ventured to come myself and offer you my escort." "Ah, how good you are," Evadne cried, feeling fully for the first time how much she had in heart been dreading the ordeal of having perhaps to enter the ball room alone. The old gentleman surveyed her some seconds in silence. "That's original," he said at last, with several nods, approvingly. "And that is a glorious piece of colour you have in your hand." "Is it not?" she said, "More beautiful, I think, than all my jewels." "Yes," he agreed. "The flowers are the finishing touch." The ball had begun when Evadne arrived, and the first person she encountered was the Grand Duke, who begged for a dance and took her to the ball room. A dance was just over, however, when they entered; the great room was pretty clear, and the prince led her toward the further end where their hostess was sitting. There also was Colonel Colquhoun and and some other men, with Mrs. Guthrie Brimston. He had forgotten Evadne for the moment, and she was so transformed by the beautiful lines of her dress that he had looked at her hard and admiringly before he recognized her. "Who's the lady with the Grand Duke?" Major Livingston exclaimed. "Someone with a figure, by Jove!" said old Lord Groome. "Loyal Egypt herself!" said Mrs. Guthrie Brimston, always apt at analogy. "Why--it's Evadne," said Colonel Colquhoun. "Didn't know his own wife, by Jove!" Lord Groome exclaimed. "Well, I hope I may be pardoned at that distance," rejoined Colonel Colquhoun, confused. "Royal Egypt is more audacious than ever," Mrs. Guthrie Brimston observed. "This is a new departure. The reign of ideas is over, I fancy, and a season of social success has begun."