He was more often out of England than in it, and there were even some who suspected him of being an empire-builder, though their grounds for doing so were but slight.

It was, however, characteristic of Chris that she never forgot her friends, a characteristic which Trevor Mordaunt also possessed to a marked degree.  Therefore it was not surprising that soon after her first appearance in London society he had claimed and had been readily accorded the privileges of old acquaintanceship.

Since that day they had met casually at several functions, and people were beginning to wonder a little at Mordaunt’s unusual energy in a social sense, for it was several years since he had brought himself to tread the mill of a London season.

Chris always hailed his appearance with obvious pleasure, though she was very far from connecting it in any sense with herself.  He was always kind to her, always ready to make things go smoothly for her, and she never knew an awkward moment in his society.  There were plenty of people who spoke of him with awe, but Chris was not one of these.  She never found him in the least formidable.

And so it was with ingenuous pleasure that she anticipated his advent that morning.  They had met at a dance on the previous evening, and her card had been full before his arrival.  It had not occurred to her to save a dance for him.

“I never thought you would come,” she had told him in distress.  “I wish I had known!”

And then he had looked at her quietly for a moment with those intent grey eyes of his that never seemed to miss anything, and had asked her if he might call on the following morning, since he was to see nothing of her that night.

She had responded with a pressing invitation to do so, and he had simply thanked her and departed.

And so when the morning came Chris was still struggling with her hair when he arrived, having breakfasted in bed and finally arisen at a scandalously late hour.  But that she knew Aunt Philippa to be also in bed, she would scarcely have ventured upon such a proceeding.  Aunt Philippa knew nothing of the expected visitor.  As a matter of fact Chris, in her airy fashion, had quite forgotten to mention the matter.  Mrs. Forest, being still uncertain as to Mordaunt’s state of mind, had discreetly foreborne to put the girl on her guard.  She had at the beginning of things carefully instilled into her that it was essential that she should miss no opportunity of making a wealthy marriage, and she hoped that Chris would have the sense to bear this in mind.

Had she known of Mordaunt’s coming she would probably have drilled her carefully beforehand, but luckily Chris’s negligence spared her this.  And so on that sunny summer morning she was sublimely unconscious of what was before her, and entered Mordaunt’s presence at length almost at a run.  Chris at twenty was very little older than Chris at seventeen.