She began to see that many of her favourite tricks at home and abroad—­with servants, with her parents, with acquaintances, and the public in general—­were not proofs, in Raygan’s eyes, that she was to the manor born, rather the contrary, and that hurt.  She was straining to understand and observe the finest nuances.  Never had it been more difficult than to-day, during this visit she detested to the great department store of Peter Rolls.  If she had declined to come, that would have been snobbish.  If, having come, she refused the “glad hand” to one of her father’s shop girls whom Raygan chose to greet as an equal—­that, too, would be snobbish.  And to be snobbish was, in Raygan’s language, to be “beastly vulgar.”

If she were not snobbish—­if she treated Miss Child with warm cordiality, asked her a dozen questions, and listened kindly to the answers, Petro would come with Eileen and find his long-lost friend.  Would Lord Raygan go so far in his dislike of snobbishness as to welcome an assistant culled from his bride’s father’s shop as a sister-in-law?  Ena thought not.  Besides, she was not sure yet that she would ever be his bride, and any risk she took might turn the scale against her, so uncertain seemed the balance.  Just at present the danger was that she might fall in the slippery space between two high stools.

“Why, yes, of course, Lord Raygan,” she said, able in the midst of alarums to enjoy the repetition of his title, which made people stare.  “We’ll stay in the elevator and talk to Miss Child, and go up again when she has gone.  Are you really working here in the store, Miss Child, as—­as—­a—–­”

“Yes, I’m in the blouse department,” Win replied, quite as anxious to escape as Miss Rolls was anxious to blot her out.  “I’ve been up to see the superintendent on business, and now I’m hurrying back to work.”

“You never wrote me,” said Ena, thinking it was better to chatter than let Lord Raygan talk, perhaps indiscreetly.  And there were still more floors at which the elevator must stop before reaching the ground level.  “I—­I do trust you would have written if you’d wanted anything done that I could do.”  Her tone tried not to be too patronizing, lest patronage should be considered to verge on snobbishness.

“Thank you.  I never did want anything that you could do.  Though it was kind of you to offer,” Win returned, and was aware that every one was listening.

Oh, why had she believed Mr. Loewenfeld when he vowed that the one secure sanctuary against the Rolls family was in Peter Rolls’s store?  If only she had not come here; by this time surely she would have found something else and all would have been well.

“Well, it’s very nice to see you again, Lady in the Moon,” said Raygan.  “Do you like this place better than Nadine’s?”

“There’s more variety,” replied Win.

“Not homesick yet for our side of the water—­what?”