"That's strange!" he muttered to himself as he got up.
After putting the book back in the bookcase where he had found it, he stood and looked round the splendid apartment with a mixture of interest and delighted attention.
Yes, this wonderful old "post and panel" dwelling was the most beautiful of the many beautiful old country houses with which he had made acquaintance in the last two or three years; and it was awfully good of Bubbles to have got him asked here! Even if she hadn't actually suggested he should come, he knew that of course he owed his being here to her.
The queer, enigmatic, clever girl had the whole of Donnington's steadfast heart.

Since he had first met Bubbles--only some eighteen months ago, but it now seemed an eternity--all life had been different.
At first she had at once repelled, attracted, and shocked him.

He had been much taken aback when she had first proposed coming to see him, unchaperoned, in the modest rooms he occupied in Gray's Inn.

Then, after she had twice invited herself to tea, her constant comings seemed quite natural.

Sometimes she would be accompanied by a friend, either another girl or a man, and they would form a merry, happy little party of three or four.