No one but the family was allowed in the gift room and the footman with a message for Patricia from the bridegroom stopped halfway down the next room, and even though she was so near being Mrs. Rolland, the girl blushed at the name and started forward. “I’ll come at once. Captain Ramsay, do find Nell. Ask her to come up to my room. I must see her.” “I can’t leave here,” said Ramsay. “Jack will tell her. I say, old man--” And he turned round to speak to Jack, but Hereford had simply crossed the room and gone out by the other door. * * * * * As Mrs. Hereford, after leaving Ramsay, went out of the gift room she ran into young Hereford, who caught her arm and drew her toward her own room. “Nell, come along with me a second, will you?” Her stepchildren called her by her first name. She was more like a sister than a mother to them. She was always dreading demands of money from Jack, for whenever he wanted either to confess to her or to demand a favor, he made her boudoir a confessional. Mrs. Hereford was a Southerner, accustomed to a great deal of admiration from young men, and Jack Hereford was especially chivalrous and devoted to her. He might well be, for she had been his defender against his father more than once. Now he put her in a comfortable chair and called in to her maid, who happened to be in the next room. “Marie, like an angel fetch a couple of cocktails for Mrs. Hereford and me, will you?” “You should rest, Nell; you’ve been worn out with all this rush.” When he had made his stepmother comfortable, he lit a cigarette for her, took one himself, and looked around at the photographs of himself and Ramsay. “Gee, what a lot of me! You framed everything I ever sent you, I guess. Isn’t Ralph a corker? Now he’s got the good luck to be staying on. I’ve brought you here, Nell, to say good-by. I’ve got to go to-day.” She looked at him in surprise. “You mean to say you are going to miss the wedding?” “I am awfully cut up about it--military orders, and--honestly, I’m not sorry to get away. Dad has been rotten to me--absolutely rotten!” The maid brought the two cocktails on a tray. Jack drank his and said half smiling: “You’re a brick, Nell. Ralph will bring me news of everything when he comes. Good-by--don’t get too tired. See you at Christmas.” He leaned over, kissed her, and went to bid his sister good-by. The lady of the house, while alone in her room the next few moments, received countless telephone calls and messages. As soon as they knew she was to be found every one came to her. Only after she had dismissed the last messenger could she draw a long breath and remember Ralph in the room beyond. Ramsay had become a great excitement and a problem. To-morrow he would be gone, however, and to-night she would try to put things on another footing, and in his absence turn to the occupations of her busy social life to try to forget him.