HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS The long dining-room was almost filled with a troop of guests who had arrived on the previous day.

Most of the men were gathered round the huge sideboard, on which was a formidable array of silver-covered hot-water dishes.

Places were laid along the flower-decked table for thirty or forty.

I stood apart for a few moments whilst the Duke was greeting some of his guests.

Ray, who was sitting alone, motioned me to a place by him.
"Come and sit here, Ducaine," he said; "that is," he added, with a sudden sarcastic gleam in his dark eyes, "unless you still have what the novelists call an unconquerable antipathy to me.