She called all her forces together and played the part of the radiant, well-mannered hostess, being even extra sweet and charming to Henry, who was in the seventh heaven in consequence. The dreaded introduction of his too-fascinating friend at Heronac had passed off well and his adored lady did not seem to be taking any notice of him. Michael did not seek by word or look to engage her in personal conversation; if he had really been a stranger who did not even find his hostess fair, he could not have been more casual or less impressed. And all the while his pulses were bounding and he was growing more and more filled with astonishment and emotion. At last a thought came. Why, of course! Henry had told her he was coming, so she had expected the meeting and had had time to school herself to act! But this straw was not long vouchsafed him, and then stupefaction set in, for Henry chanced to say: "You must forgive me for not having time to write you my friend's name in my postscript, the post was off that minute--you had to take him on trust!" "I do not know that I even caught it just now!" Sabine returned archly. "Mr. ----?" And Henry, engaged for a moment taking a second cup of tea from Madame Imogen's fat hand, Michael answered for him, looking straight into her eyes: "Michael Howard Arranstoun of Arranstoun over the border in Scotland--like Gretna Green." "How romantic that sounds," Madame Imogen chimed in. "Why, it's a name fit for a stage play I do think. A party of my friends visited that very castle only last fall. Mrs. Howard dear, it's as well known as the Trossachs to investigators of the antique!" "Wonderfully interesting!" Sabine remarked blandly--putting more sugar in her tea--at which Michael's eyebrows raised themselves in a whimsical way--back had rushed to him the recollection that on the only occasion they had ever drunk tea together before, she had said that she liked "lumps and lumps of it!" "You probably know England?" he hazarded politely. "Very little. I was once there for a month when I was a child; we went to see Windermere and the Lakes." "You got no further north? That was a pity, our country is most beautiful--but it is not too late--you may go there yet some day." "Who knows?" and she laughed gaily--she had to allow herself some outlet, she felt she would otherwise have screamed. Michael looked away out to sea and he told himself he must not tease her any more. She was astonishingly game--so astonishingly game that but for the name "Howard" he could have almost believed that this young woman was his Sabine's double--but he remembered now that she had said she was going to call herself Mrs. Howard because otherwise she would not be able to "have any fun!" He had never recollected it since, not even when Henry had told him the lady of his heart was called Howard--obscured by his friend's assertion that her husband was an American, he had not for an instant suspected the least connection with himself.