"I thought I'd perhaps better let you know--I'm--well, I'm going to have a talk with Diana this morning!" The voice was determined.

Muriel Colwood--startled and dismayed--surveyed the speaker.

She had been waylaid on the threshold of her room.

The morning was half-way through.

Visitors, including Mr.Fred Birch, were expected to lunch, and Miss Merton, who had been lately invisible, had already, she saw, changed her dress.