without asking them to wait while she inquired whether I was too busy to see them, so that Angel could escape to her room, if need be, Angel sat still. Of a sudden we heard a voice outside the sitting-room door saying, "Oh, it's all right. However busy Mr. Brand was, he would see me;" the door opened, and in came Miss Dorothy Delamere, late of the Pyramid Theatre, whom I believed to be at the moment touring in America, and whom I certainly wished no nearer.
"Hullo, Roger, old boy! Aren't you surprised—" she cried, and stopped short at the sight of Angel.
I was indeed surprised, and even more vexed. We had been on the friendliest terms, Dolly and I, for she was the prettiest creature; but her eight months absence in America had abated my once impassioned interest in her; and, to be sadly frank, now that I had Angel's interests to consider, it was very much a matter of,
"O, we that were dear, we are all too near
With the thick of the world between us!"
And it was indeed distressing that the thick of the world was in no such handy position.
But I trust that nothing of this feeling showed in the warmth with which I cried, "What, you, Miss Delamere! This is a surprise! Let me intro-
