Lady Tancred unfortunately had one of her very bad headaches, and an hour before dinner, in fact before her son had left the Park Lane house, a telephone message came to say she was dreadfully sorry, it would be impossible for her to come.

It was Emily who spoke to Francis Markrute, himself.
"Mother is so disappointed," she said, "but she really suffers so dreadfully.

I am sure Countess Shulski will forgive her, and you, too.
She wants to know if Countess Shulski will let Tristram bring her to-morrow morning, without any more ceremony, to see her and stay to luncheon." Thus it was settled and this necessitated a change in the table arrangements.
Lady Ethelrida would now sit on the host's right hand, and Lady Coltshurst, an aunt on the Tancred side, at his left, while Zara would be between the Duke and her fiance, as originally arranged.

Emily Guiscard would have Sir James Danvers and Lord Coltshurst as neighbors, and Mary her uncle, the Duke's brother, a widower, Lord Charles Montfitchet, and his son, "Young Billy," the Glastonbury heir--Lady Ethelrida was the Duke's only child.
At a quarter before eight Francis Markrute went up to his niece's sitting-room.

She was already dressed in a sapphire-blue velvet masterpiece of simplicity.