He had then laughed and said that he had received a letter at Leith making his immediate return absolutely necessary.

“How disappointed you must have felt!” she suggested, with something like a smile upon her face.

His smile was broader as he said: 

“Well, I’m not so sure that my disappointment was such as would tend to make me take a gloomy view of life for an indefinite time.  Lord Earlscourt is a very good sort of fellow; but——­”

“Yes; I quite agree with you,” said she, still smiling.  “Knowing what follows that ‘but’ in everyone’s mind, we all thought it rather strange on your part to start on that cruise.  And so suddenly you seemed to make up your mind, too.  You never hinted to me that afternoon that you were anxious to see Norway under the personal conductorship of Lord Earlscourt.”

“It would have been impossible for me to give you such a hint,” said he.  “I had no idea myself that I wanted greatly to go to Norway, until I met Earlscourt.”

“So we gathered from what papa told us when he came in about midnight, bringing Mr. Linton with him,” said Phyllis.  “Ella had come across to me before nine, to ask me to go with her to ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Covent Garden, forgetting that I was dining with Lady Earlscourt.”

“But you had not returned from the dinner party at nine,” he suggested.  She had certainly succeeded in arousing his interest, even in such ordinary details as those she was describing.

“Of course not; but Ella waited for me; I suppose she did not want to return to her lonely house.  She seemed so glad when I came in that she made up her mind to stay with me all night.”

“Oh!  But she didn’t stay with you?”

“Of course not, when her husband appeared.  It was so funny—­so startling.”

“So funny—­so startling!  Yes, it must have been—­funny.”

“Ella was wearing such a lovely frock—­covered with diamonds.  I wish that you had seen her.”

“Ah!”

“I never saw anything so lovely.  I told her that it was a bridal toilet.”

“A bridal toilet?”

“We thought it such a pity that it should be wasted.  She didn’t go to the opera, of course.”

“And it was wasted—­wasted?”

“Oh, no!  When her husband came in with papa, about midnight, we laughed and said that her dressing herself in that way was an inspiration; that something told her that he was returning.”

“Probably a telegram from Paris had told her; that was the source of her inspiration.”

“Oh, no! what was so funny about the matter was that Mr. Linton’s servant bungled sending the telegram, so that Ella knew nothing of his coming.”

“Great Heavens!”

“You have not seen Ella since your return?”

“No; I have been with her husband on business all day, however.”

“And of course he would not have occasion to refer to so casual an incident as his wife’s wearing a new toilet.”