"May I really come in for a moment?" said Olga. She stood hesitating on the threshold, a slim, girlish figure. "Don't let me disturb you! Mrs. Musgrave thinks she must have left her rings here. How do you do?"
She gave her hand to Noel who had moved to meet her He laughed audaciously into her face.
"Awfully pleased to meet you, Miss—er—Ratcliffe! Why didn't you come in before? I was in a beastly tight fix, and should have been glad of your assistance. I knew you were there."
"Did you?" she said. The smile that had grown so rare flashed over her face in response to his. "I wasn't eavesdropping really," she assured him. "I was only waiting for a suitable moment to present myself."
"Could any moment be anything else?" he asked her, bowing deeply.
She laughed at that without the faintest coquetry. "Very easily, I should say. Isn't little Peggy going to bed?"
"Of course she is," said Noel. "Hop in, infant! We've been officiating at a wedding to-day, she and I, and the excitement has turned our heads a little. That's the way, mavourneen!" as Peggy, a little shy in the presence of the newcomer, slipped into her bed. "You didn't introduce me though, did you?"
Peggy held his hand in embarrassed silence.
"Peggy scarcely knows me herself yet," said Olga. "Don't you think we might manage without?"
"I dared not have suggested it myself," said Noel, with an ease that belied him. "If we do that, we may as well pretend we're old acquaintances at once."