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10 THE SHART SET

‘““And I'm to blame, too—why on carth I didn't rattle it off in the car- riage I don’t know; it would have been the least severe way. You'll bring him around, of course; it's the natural thing, I suppose.”

“ Yes,” replied Illington, ‘*if he'll come. Of that I'm not so sure. He speaks very bitterly of Mildred, and vet T think he wants to sce her. If he didn't, he wouldn’t have come back. There is something I don't know, Camilla—something back of it all that he hasn’t told me yet, and he's very egreatly changed. Had he ever quar- reled with Mildred before he went away? "

‘[ don’t think so—that's the strange part of it, a part of it I never under- stood. She waited for him for two years, and a little while afterward came the news of the accident. She seemed heartbroken, and you know her marriage to Jack was nothing more than a commonplace affair on her part, although he fairly worships her. I suppose she felt that she must marry somebody—most girls do, what- cver their interests of the heart—and she found that Jack would do rather better than anybody clse, since he had always admired her. But she has never quite forgotten El, and un- til she and Jack came back from the South on their honeymoon she didn’t go about any more than was neces-

sary. Oh, it’s all so absurd and im- possible. Why do things happen this way?"”

Stockton cut short their colloquy, and Mrs. Escott was among the last of the guests to go bustling to the door. Illington walked over to bid Mr. and Mrs. Trenton good-night, and his last impression, as the cab moved away, was of Mildred’s figure in the soft light of the receiving hall a figrure that all at once appealed to him as pitifully helpless and forlorn.

What he did not see was that she stood thus, silent and quite white, for some minutes, and then returned languidly to the drawing-room. Jack Trenton and Camilla wcre there look- ing at one another in mute and be- wildered distress. Mildred glanced

Go gle

at them as she entered. Her husband started toward her with outstretched arms, but she gave a little shrinking gesture and stepped back.

““You might have told me of this, Camilla,” she said, but there was no note of chiding in her tones, which were even and spiritless. ““You knew? "

Camilla rushed over to her and im- pulsively pressed her in her arms.

• • Yes, Milly, dear; but only an hour

before. It wwas silly of me. I don't know why 1 didn't spcak. Come, you are very tired, and Ferdie Acton has made a pretty mess; we'll go upto bed.”

Camilla led her like a little child. As they reached the doorway Trenton called out:

• “ Mildred—don’t go; I've got some-

thing to tell you.”

She smiled back at him rather wearily.

• • Not to-night, Jack—no, no, please,

not to-night. I am so put out. Wait until morning.”

III

Waen Illington awoke the next morning it was to the consciousness of slamming doors and the conse- quent conclusion that Stockton had called. It was Stockton’s manner of making his presence known in ““The Quarters,” for he had fre- quently declared that the pervading calm depressed him. Illington rec- ognized his voice in the outer and main apartment of his suite, which he used as a sort of bachelor snug- gery, and combined receiving-room, parlor and what Ferdie Acton dubbed the bar. Stockton had evidently come upon Brent, to whom he was explain- ing that he would bhave called imme- diately after the supper at Mrs. Tren- ton's but for Illington’s absurd con- ventionality. After this the conver- sation was desultory, and Stockton achieved a witticism in hoping that now Brent was home he would en- deavor to live up to his obituary record. Then he went away to an