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did not know was that he was as nervous about walking into the concert room as she was. They were among the last to arrive, and the room was crowded already. He was very glad of the excuse of having Jean on his arm to save him from having to look all about him. And he was not sorry for the crowded room and the necessity of sitting on some of the few vacant chairs close to the doors.
    But for all that he did not need Alex’s words.
    â€œYour mother is sitting clear across the room,” she said to her husband. “And Madeline and Aunt Viola. What a shame there are no empty seats near them, Edmund.”
    â€œBut you can all content yourselves with smiling and nodding at one another,” he said, “something you would all feel foolish doing if you were sitting next to one another. There are compensations for every annoyance, you see, Alex.”
    â€œI see you are in one of your nonsensical moods,” she said, tapping him on the arm with her fan. “I shall confine my conversation to James and Miss Cameron. Perhaps I will have some sense from them.”
    â€œIf I were you,” the earl said, “I would satisfy myself with no conversation at all. The music is about to begin, and you may annoy your neighbors if you chatter.”
    But crowded as the room was, and as much as he had not looked about him, James had known exactly where Madeline was the moment he walked through the doors. She was wearing a jonquil-colored gown and she was seated between her mother and the Guardsman who had been paying court to her that afternoon. The one she was about to marry, according to Alex.
    And he was welcome to her, too.
    The pianist was seated at the grand pianoforte in the middle of the room. Looking at him, James found it very difficult to keep his eyes focused there and not to let them stray beyond to fair curls and flushed cheeks and shining eyes, which he knew to be green, and an enticing mouth curved upward into a smile. He was surprised to see that she concentrated on the music, her eyes not moving from the pianist.
    Just as his own did not.
    â€œWhich is the earl’s mother?” Jean whispered. Her voice became anxious. “I will not have to meet her, will I, James?”
    He assured her at the time that she would probably not, since the room was so crowded. And indeed, he was proved correct. During the interval, when Sir Cedric Harvey went for refreshments, the dowager countess stayed where she was, talking with her sister-in-law, Mrs. Carrington.
    But Madeline did not stay where she was, although for a while she spoke with the colonel and with the couple who sat in front of them. After a few minutes, she got to her feet with the young lady with whom she had been talking, and the two of them began to make their way across the crowded room.
    James became engrossed in his conversation with Jean and Alexandra. And felt again like the schoolboy he had not been for more than twelve years.

    M ADELINE APPLAUDED with enthusiasm at the end of the pianoforte recital. She was enjoying herself immensely. The music was good, she had Jason Huxtable sitting beside her, easily outshining any other gentleman in the room with his scarlet regimentals, and she had her mother and Sir Cedric on one side of her, and Aunt Viola and Uncle William on the other side of Jason, and her cousins Anna and Walter Carrington in front of them, Anna with Mr. Chambers and Walter with Miss Mitchell.
    Edmund and his party were clear across the crowded room. She had scarcely noticed their entrance and had paid them no attention beyond a smile and a nod in their direction. Except that he put even Jason in the shade with his dark evening clothes and his vividly dark hair and complexion. James Purnell, that was. And except that there was a young lady clinging to his arm, even after they had seated themselves. A very young lady, a stranger. A pretty young lady, on whom he looked with a fondness he had never directed her way.
    Not