Although Phoebe did her utmost to spin out the meal by eating with tantalizing and hygienic slowness, it ended without any sign of the absentee, and at last she felt bound to return to the drawing-room, where she was followed ten minutes later by Lawrence, who had stayed to smoke a cigarette.

“The worst of it is,” he said, standing before the fire, “you never know quite where you are with Mark.”

“I suppose,” suggested Carrissima, “the simple fact of the matter is that he missed his train.”

“In that case,” returned her brother, “surely he might have run to sixpence for a telegram.  For a steady-going fellow Mark is about as erratic as they’re made.”

“How extremely inconsistent!” exclaimed Carrissima.

“Not at all!” said Lawrence, frowning, as he took a chair.  “A man may drive crookedly without exceeding the limit.  Although there are things you can swear Mark would never dream of doing, you never know what folly he will be up to next.”

As Lawrence was speaking in his rather pompous manner, the door opened and Mark Driver entered the room:  tall, broad-shouldered, with a handsome, alert, shaven face and an obvious appearance of haste.

On leaving Cambridge he had gone to Saint Bartholomew’s, and having completed his course there, taken a post as House Surgeon at Saint Josephine’s, a small hospital in a southeastern suburb.  Mark remained there two years and left at Christmas; after spending a few weeks idly in London he went to take charge of Doctor Bunbury’s practice in Yorkshire, principally for the sake of being near to his own people, and having passed two months, more occupied by sport than patients, returned this afternoon.

“Why didn’t you come in time for dinner?” demanded Phoebe, as he kissed her cheek.

“Upon my word, I am most awfully sorry,” he replied, and turned at once to Carrissima, who was striving to hide her satisfaction on seeing his face again.  Never, perhaps, during their long acquaintance, had they been so many months apart; but while Mark was in London between Christmas and his departure for the North of England, Carrissima had been on a long visit to Devonshire.

“I didn’t expect to meet you this evening,” said Mark.  “Phoebe told me in her letter last week that you were staying in Shropshire with Colonel Faversham.”

“So I was,” returned Carrissima.  “But I never had the least intention to live there for the remainder of my life.”

“She took us all completely by surprise,” explained Phoebe, “by coming home the day before yesterday.”

“I really cannot understand even now,” said Lawrence, “why in the world you couldn’t stay to return with father!”

“Oh well, it’s an ill-wind that blows no one any good,” cried Mark, while Carrissima sat with her eyes averted, hoping that nobody would suspect her actual object.

But she had known of his intention to depart for Paris the next morning, to spend a month with his old friend Wentworth before finally settling down in London.  If she had waited for Colonel Faversham’s return to Grandison Square she must, obviously, have missed Mark Driver again.  One of the chief purposes of Carrissima’s life seemed to be the disguise of motives, concerning which she scarcely knew whether she ought to feel ashamed or not.