Stafford laughed.

"We men always put our foot in it when we talk about a woman's dress,"

he said.

A moment after, the dinner was announced, and Sir Stephen, who had come

down at the last moment, as he went up to take in Lady Clansford,

nodded to Stafford, and smiled significantly. He was as carefully

dressed as usual, but on his face, and in his eyes particularly, was an

expression of satisfaction and anticipatory triumph which was too

obvious to escape the notice of but very few. He was not "loud" at

dinner, but talked even more fluently than usual, and once or twice his

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fine eyes swept the long table with a victorious, masterful glance.

Directly the ladies had gone, the little knot of financiers drew up

nearer to their host, and Griffenberg raised his eyebrows

interrogatively.

Sir Stephen nodded.

"Yes," he said, in an undertone. "It's all right! I heard this morning.

My man will be down, with the final decision, by a special train which

ought to land him about midnight. We'll meet in the library, say at

half past twelve, and get the thing finished, eh, baron?"

Wirsch grunted approval.

"Vare goot, Sare Stephen; dee sooner a ting ees congluded, de bedder.

'Arf bast dwelve!"

There was but a short stay made in the drawing-room, and before ten

o'clock the guests streamed into the magnificent ball-room.

There were a number of the neighbouring gentry who were making their

acquaintance with the Villa for the first time, and they regarded the

splendour around them with an amazement which was not without reason;

for to-night the artistically designed and shaded electric lamps, the

beautiful rooms with their chaste yet effective decorations, on which

money had been lavished like water, were seen to their greatest

advantage; and the Vaynes, the Bannerdales, and the local gentry

generally exchanged glances and murmured exclamations of surprise and

admiration, and wondered whether there could be any end to the wealth

of a man who could raise such a palace in so short a time.

From the gallery of white-and-gold the famous band, every man of which

was a musician, presently began to send forth the sweet strains of a

Waldteufel waltz, and Stafford found Lady Clansford for the first

dance. Though he had paid little attention to Howard's remarks about

Maude Falconer, he remembered them, and he did not ask her for a dance

until the ball had been running about an hour; then he went up to where

she was standing talking to Lord Bunnerdale, her last partner. His

lordship and Stafford had already met, and Lord Bannerdale, who admired

and liked Stafford, nodded pleasantly.




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