Very urgent business recalled him suddenly, he explained.

A messenger had arrived just before dinner.

He must leave without fail in the morning.

Miss Westonbaugh of course was forewarned; but the others were not.

Lord Steepleton Kildare, in the act of lighting a cheroot, dropped the vesuvian incontinently, and stood staring at Isaacs with an indescribable expression of empty wonder in his face, while the match sputtered and smouldered and died away in the grass by the door.