“Luncheon!  Where?”

“Why, my dear, at the station—­ham, beef, beer—­you know—­veal pie—­that sort o’ thing.”

“Rowley! how could you!  You’ll be awfully ill, you know.”

“Not a bit of it, not I. I—­” but at this moment rat-tat-a-tat-tat went the knocker.

Oh! agony—­there wasn’t a doubt this was Teddy!

“I say, what a game—­here’s another visitor!” remarked Captain Dacres cheerily.

“One who is expected, I shouldn’t wonder.”  Mrs. Chetwode, as usual, rose equal to the emergency.  “We may as well let the cat out of the bag, Nina, and tell him.—­We’ve got a young man coming to take us to the play,” and turning to Martin she said, “Show him into the boudoir if that’s Mr. Vere.”

“Mr. Vere!  What, Teddy!  Here, stop, I’ll open the door!” exclaimed Rowley hastily “Don’t you go”

“But why?” interposed Mrs. Chetwode amazedly.

“Because it’s interrupting you so awfully in your dinner.  No, no, we’ll go up stairs together—­it’ll be all right you’ll see”

He was already in the hall, had opened the door—­their voices, laughing it seemed—­sounded together.

“What can it mean?” said Nina anxiously

“Never mind, one thing is certain—­he didn’t see you”

“Perhaps it’s the beer—­he seems a little excited, don’t you think?”

“I’m not going to leave them together Teddy,” called out Mrs. Chetwode, “come in here.  Have you brought tickets for the comedy?”

“Tickets, eh?”

“Oh, it’s no use disguising; we’ve—­”

“No, no!” broke in Rowley, “not a bit, I know all about it, old fellow; they’ve told me what you’ve come to do—­I’ll go with you.  By Jove, capital idea!  Ha, ha.”

“Oh, it must be the beer,” thought Nina, and watching Bella’s eye she tapped her forehead with her finger to indicate that there was no doubt that Rowley’s head was slightly affected.

“Mrs. Chetwode, I’m awfully sorry,” began Teddy, “but do you know, I’ve made such a mess about the comedy; they aint playing that piece at all there now.  I hope you’ll both forgive me.”

“How tiresome!  What a naughty boy you are!” said Bella.  “Now there’s nothing for us to do.”

“Nothing to do,” said Rowley.  “Not a bit of it; we ain’t going to be stumped for one failure; we’ll go somewhere—­where shall it be, Nina, eh?”

“Any place you like, dear,” so long as I am with you, the big brown eyes seemed to say; and Rowley, looking back again, thought, “And I could doubt her—­bless her heart, the darling!” while Nina kept repeating, “This will be a lesson for me as long as I live.  Never again, no more flirtation—­never, never, never!”

Later in the evening when it was decided that they should all go to the Fisheries, without hesitation as to the other two, Nina and Rowley went off together.

“Are we to follow the turtle doves?” said Teddy with sarcasm.