“She intimated politely, when we asked her questions, that it was a last resort.”

“I should think so, indeed!  She was—­well, not a beauty exactly, but too weirdly fascinating.”

“She hasn’t changed.  Only she looked scared at the sight of us.  And she’s thinner in the face.  Her eyes seemed to have grown too big for it.  Ena said Petro mustn’t find out where she is.  Rather rum—­what?”

“Is this the thing that’s made you so grumpy ever since?”

“I don’t know that I’ve been grumpy.  Only a bit reflective.  The fact is—–­”

“What?”

“Never mind.  It wouldn’t sound very nice.”

“Who cares how it sounds?  You might tell me, now we’ve got so far.”

“Well, then, sometimes I wonder whether—­the game’s worth the candle.  Whatever the rotten old proverb means!”

Eileen had no difficulty in understanding the allusion.

“She’s got heaps of good things about her,” the girl reminded him, being as loyal as was humanly possible to her hostess.

“Heaps.  They’re simply piled up in the corners of her nature.  But I seemed to have wandered into an empty place to-day.  By Jove, Eily, I thought I’d made up my mind.  I’m fond of the old place at home, and I’d like, to see it done up properly.  It isn’t as if I’d ever care tuppence again about any girl on earth after—­Kathleen.  So what does anything of that sort matter?  At least that’s what I’ve been asking myself.”

“I’m afraid Ena thinks you’ll soon be asking her.”

“Heavens!  I suppose she does.  Not that I’ve said a confounded word.  I’m hanged if I know what to do!  I tell you what.  I’ll wait and see how things go to-night.  And then—­maybe I’ll toss up a penny.”

“We ought to go down now, anyhow,” said Eileen, still very thoughtful.

“Come along, then, and face the music.”

“You go.  I’ll follow in a minute.  I want to put this wonderful pink orchid in just the right place in my dress, and I shall be nervous if you watch me.”

“What a ripper!  Where did you get it?” Rags pretended that he cared to know the history of a wonderful, live-looking flower that lay on his sister’s dressing-table.

“Petro.  He bought it for me in the florist department of his father’s shop.  He said it was the latest addition—­the department, not the orchid.”

“Don’t you get thinking too much about Rolls,” grumbled Lord Raygan.  “There may be something in that affair, after all.  One can never be sure.  Anyhow, I thought I’d tell you.”

On that he closed the door, shutting himself out.

“Petro—­and the Lady in the Moon,” Eileen whispered, just above her breath, as she found the right place for the orchid.

CHAPTER XVI

THE SEED ENA PLANTED