I'll be all right in a minute." As she lolled back on a divan near the players Constance noted, or thought she noted, now and then exchanges of looks between Bella and Watson.

What was the bond of intimacy between them?
She noted on Mrs.
Noble's part that she was keenly alive to everything that Halsey did.
It was a peculiar quadrangle.
Halsey was losing heavily in his efforts to retrieve his fortunes.

He said nothing, but accepted the losses grimly.

Mrs.Noble, however, after each successive loss seemed more and more nervous.
At last, with a hasty look at her wrist watch, she gave a little suppressed scream.
"How the time flies!" she cried.

"Who would have thought it as late as that?
Really I must go.