To-night Lady Rylton has been pronounced by most of those present the prettiest woman in the room.

Hescott pilots his charming companion to a low lounge in a corner of the room, a place at any of the tables being impossible to get.

But Rylton decides that he has taken her to that secluded spot to make more conspicuous his flirtation with her; and she--she seems only too ready to help him in his plan.
The fact that he is frowning heavily is conveyed to him by a voice at his elbow.
_ "Don't_ look so intense--so like a thirteenth-century conspirator!" says Mrs.Bethune.Her eyes are full of laughter and mischief--there is something of triumph in them too.

"What does it matter, after all ?" "True." He gives her a brilliant smile in return for her rather mocking one.

"Nothing matters--except the present moment.