“Some time,” said Sheila.  “I would rather listen just now to all you can tell me about Mr. Ingram—­he is such a very old friend of mine, and I do not know how he lives.”

The lad speedily discovered that there was at least one way of keeping his new and beautiful friend profoundly interested; and indeed he went on talking until Lavender came into the room in evening dress.  It was eleven o’clock, and young Mosenberg started up with a thousand apologies and hopes that he had not detained Mrs. Lavender.  No, Mrs. Lavender was not going out:  her husband was going round for an hour to a ball that Mrs. Kavanagh was giving, but she preferred to stay at home.

“May I call upon you to-morrow afternoon, madame?” said the boy as he was leaving.

“I shall be very glad if you will,” Sheila answered.

And as he went along the pavement young Mosenberg observed to his companion that Mrs. Lavender did not seem to have gone out much, and that it was very good of her to have promised to go with him occasionally into Kensington Gardens.

“Oh, has she?” said Lavender.

“Yes,” said the lad with some surprise.

“You are lucky to be able to get her to leave the house,” her husband said:  “I can’t.”

Perhaps he had not tried so much as the words seemed to imply.

CHAPTER XVII.

GUESSES.

“Mr. Ingram,” cried young Mosenberg, bursting into the room of his friend, “do you know that I have seen your princess from the island of the Atlantic?  Yes, I met her yesterday, and I went up to the house, and I dined there and spent all the evening there.”

Ingram was not surprised, nor, apparently, much interested.  He was cutting open the leaves of a quarterly review, and a freshly-filled pipe lay on the table beside him.  A fire had been lit, for the evenings were getting chill occasionally; the shutters were shut; there was some whisky on the table; so that this small apartment seemed to have its share of bachelors’ comforts.

“Well,” said Ingram quietly, “did you play for her?”

“Yes.”

“And sing for her too?”

“Yes.”

“Did you play and sing your very best for her?”

“Yes, I did.  But I have not told you half yet.  This afternoon I went up, and she went out for a walk with me; and we went down through Kensington Gardens, and all round by the Serpentine—­”

“Did she go into that parade of people?” said Ingram, looking up with some surprise.

“No,” said the lad, looking rather crestfallen, for he would have liked to show off Sheila to some of his friends, “she would not go:  she preferred to watch the small boats on the Serpentine; and she was very kind, too, in speaking to the children, and helping them with their boats, although some people stared at her.  And what is more than all these things, to-morrow night she comes with me to a concert in the St. James’s Hall—­yes.”