The night of the dinner-party was so fine and the roads so clean that Langholm went off on his bicycle once more, making an incongruous figure in his dress-suit, but pedalling sedately to keep cool. Fortune, however, was against him, for they had begun clipping those northern hedgerows, and an ominous bumping upon a perfectly flat road led to the discovery of a puncture a long mile from Normanthorpe. Thence onward the unhappy cyclist had to choose between running beside his machine and riding on the rims, and between the two expedients arrived at last both very hot and rather late. But he thought he must be very late; for he neither met, followed, nor was followed by any vehicle whatsoever in the drive; and the door did not open before Langholm rang, as it does when they are still waiting for one. Then the house seemed strangely silent when the door did open, and the footman wore a curious expression as he ushered the late comer into an empty drawing-room. Langholm was now almost convinced that he had made some absurd mistake, and the impression was not removed by the entry of Steel with his napkin in one hand. "I've mistaken the night!" exclaimed the perspiring author. "Not a bit of it," replied Steel; "only we thought you weren't coming at all." "Am I really so late as all that?" And Langholm began to wish he had mistaken the night. "No," said Steel, "only a very few minutes, and the sin is ours entirely. But we thought you were staying away, like everybody else." "Like--everybody--else?" "My dear fellow," said Steel, smiling on the other's bewilderment, "I humbly apologize for having classed you for an instant with the rank and file of our delightful neighbors; for the fact is that all but two have made their excuses at the last moment. The telegrams will delight you, one of these days!" "There was none from me," declared Langholm, as he began to perceive what had happened. "There was not; and my wife was quite confident that you would come; so the fault is altogether mine. Langholm, you were almost at her heels when she was introduced to the old judge yesterday?" "I was." "Have you guessed who she was--before she married me--or has anybody told you?" "I have guessed." Steel stood silent for an instant, his eyes resting in calm scrutiny upon the other, his mouth as firm and fixed, his face fresh as a young man's, his hair like spun silver in the electric light. Langholm looked upon the man who was looking upon him, and he could not hate him as he would. "And do you still desire to dine with us?" inquired his host at last. "I don't want to be in the way," faltered Langholm, "on a painful--" "Oh, never mind that!" cried Steel. "Are you quite sure you don't want to cut our acquaintance?" "You know I don't," said Langholm, bluntly. "Then come in, pray, and take us as we are." "One moment, Steel! All this is inconceivable; do you mean to say that your guests have thrown you over on account of--of--"