It must be some new affair of which she had not the least inkling, and so she sat and reflected.

Now, she told herself, if she received another invitation from Lynde she would accept it.
It was only a few days later that Aileen and Lynde met in the gold-room of the Richelieu.

Strange to relate, for one determined to be indifferent she had spent much time in making a fetching toilet.

It being February and chill with glittering snow on the ground, she had chosen a dark-green broadcloth gown, quite new, with lapis-lazuli buttons that worked a "Y" pattern across her bosom, a seal turban with an emerald plume which complemented a sealskin jacket with immense wrought silver buttons, and bronze shoes.

To perfect it all, Aileen had fastened lapis-lazuli ear-rings of a small flower-form in her ears, and wore a plain, heavy gold bracelet.