"It’s only two minutes," Ted said. "Miss Sheila Patricia?" he finished with an uplifting of brows. "I—I _haven’t_! You are a very intruding boy!" The curtain went up, and he turned away. The moment when she finally and absolutely and openly capitulated was when Monsieur Beaucaire came down the stairs, taking the old Countess of Greenbury to supper. In the midst of the storm of applause, one ecstatic little voice rang out. "He’s _worthy_ to be Irish, anyway!" As they went out Molly managed to become separated from them and lost. Denis said, "You stay out here with Lancaster," and plunged back into the crowd. Sheila Pat, excited, too restless to stand still, plunged eagerly after him. Nell was left standing with Ted. Now Ted Lancaster was possessed of some physical attributes that particularly displeased Nell, as being so ridiculously untrue to his character. She fell to pondering the strength of his rather thin mouth and of his chin; on the look of cleverness about his deep-set eyes. The very breadth of his shoulders displeased her. She told herself that a slack creature such as he must be, who lounged about and did nothing except drive in a motor, had no business with a face like his. Irritatedly she fought against a strong inclination to like him. "Isn’t your motor waiting for you?" she broke the silence in a bland tone of voice. "No." He sounded a little surprised. "There’re always hansoms, you know," he added. "Oh! But you prefer your motor, don’t you?" He gave her a quick, shrewd glance; there was just the suspicion of a smile at the corners of his lips as he answered carelessly:— "Well, they get you along quicker, you know." "Yes," she said, "and of course when you’ve a lot to do—when you are very busy—that’s a consideration." There was a little pause. She glanced at him and smiled maliciously. He had flushed a little. "Yes," he agreed nonchalantly. She watched three women frantically tearing about in search of a hansom, but she was thinking of Ted. What a cool voice he had! She wasn’t sure that it wasn’t impertinent. And as for his looking tired and ill—well, of course he would, living an unhealthy, self-indulgent, lazy life. Suddenly she began to contrast his mode of life with Denis’s before they had left Kilbrannan. Impulsively she spoke her thoughts aloud, keeping, in actual words, only to Denis, his prowess in the hunting field, football, and so on; but her expressive voice and face pointed the moral, drew the contrast, as plainly as if she had spoken it. There was another pause when she stopped. Then Denis appeared with the others. The relief in her welcome was unmistakable. "Got her! She was rushing off in a frenzy straight for the North Pole! You’re not going, Lancaster? Rot! Come along with us, old chap, and be introduced to Jimmy O’Driscoll." Ted glanced at Nell; it was an odd glance, and his mouth twisted in a sudden dry smile. "Yes, won’t you?" she said carelessly.