But he remained until Wentworth and the last guest had departed.

And then very quietly but with indisputable insistence he drew Lady Violet away into the conservatory.
She was looking white and tired, but she held herself with a proud aloofness in his presence.

While admitting his claim upon her, she yet did not voluntarily yield him an inch.
"Did you wish to speak to me ?" she asked.
He stood a moment or two in silence before replying; then: "Only to give you this," he said, and held out to her a small packet wrapped in tissue paper on the palm of his hand.
She took it unwillingly.
"The badge of servitude ?" she said.
"I should like to know if it fits," said Field quietly, as if she had not spoken.
She opened the packet and disclosed not the orthodox diamond ring she had expected, but a ring containing a single sapphire very deep in hue, exquisitely cut.

She looked at him over it, her look a question.
"Will you put it on ?" he said.
She hesitated an instant, then with a tightening of the lips she slipped it on to her left hand.
"Is it too easy ?" he said.
She looked at him again.
"No; it is not easy at all." He took her hand and looked at it.

His touch was cool and strong.