His good-looking, boyish face was full of pleasure.  He had not expected to meet her.  Nina’s welcoming smile was radiant.

“Oh, here you are, Archie!” she exclaimed, as they shook hands.  “Someone said you were out of town, but I couldn’t believe anything so tragic.”

“Quite right,” said Archie.  “Never believe the worst till there is positively no alternative.  I’m not out of town, and I’m not going to be.  It’s awfully nice to see you again, you know!  I thought the sun had set for the rest of the season.”

Nina uttered a gay little laugh.

“Oh, dear, no!  We certainly intended to stay longer, but Hereford was summoned back on business, and I really wasn’t sorry on the whole.  I did rather regret missing all the fun.”

Archie laughed.

“Hereford must be doing dark deeds then,” he said, “of which he keeps the rest of the world in complete ignorance.  The markets are dead flat just now—­nothing doing whatever.  It’s enough to make you tear your hair.”

“Really!” said Nina.  “He gave me to understant that it was something urgent.”

And then she became suddenly silent, meeting Archie’s eyes, and aware of the surprise he was too much of a gentleman to express.  With a cold feeling of dissatisfaction she turned from the subject.

“It’s very nice to be back again among my friends,” she said.  “Can’t you come and dine to-morrow and go to the theatre afterwards?”

Archie considered a moment, and she knew that when he answered he was cancelling other engagements.

“Thanks, I shall be delighted!” he said, “if I shan’t be de trop.”

There was a touch of mockery in Nina’s smile.

“We shall probably be alone,” she said.  “My husband’s business keeps him late in the City.  We have been home a week, and he has only managed to dine with me once.”

“Isn’t he here to-night?” asked Archie.

She shook her head.

“What an infernal shame!” he exclaimed impulsively.  “Oh, I beg your pardon!  That was a slip.”

But Nina laid her hand on his sleeve.

“You needn’t apologize,” she said, in a low voice.  “One can’t have everything.  If you marry—­an outsider—­for his money, you have to pay the penalty.”

Archie looked at her with further indiscretion upon the tip of his tongue.  But he thought twice and kept it back.

“I say, you know,” he said awkwardly, “I—­I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” she said gently.  “Well, you will come to-morrow?”

“Of course,” he said.  “What theatre shall we go to?  I’ll bring the tickets with me.”

The conversation drifted away into indifferent topics and presently they parted.  Nina was almost gay of heart as she drove homeward that night.  She had begun to feel her loneliness very keenly, and Archie’s society promised to be of value.

Her husband was waiting for her when she returned.  As she entered her own sitting-room, he started up abruptly from an arm-chair as if her entrance had suddenly roused him from sleep.  She was considerably surprised to see him there, for he had never before intruded without her permission.