Yet the soft clamor in the dining-room insistently ignored the emotion of the music.

Monty, bored as he was between the two most important dowagers at the feast, wondered dimly what invisible part it played in making things go.

He had a vagrant fancy that without it there would have been no zest for talk, no noisy competition to overcome, no hurdles to leap.

As it was, the talk certainly went well, and Mrs.Dan inspected the result of her work from time to time with smiling satisfaction.

From across the table she heard Colonel Drew's voice,--"Brewster evidently objects to a long siege.