"Well?" she asked in low tones.
"You're a magician, Nan," he answered with enthusiasm.
"Come, I'm going to honour you by sitting out the next two dances, and if you're very good, perhaps more."
When she had seated herself by his side under a bower of roses he was very still for a moment. She looked up with a quizzical expression and said:
"A penny for your thoughts? Am I so very wicked after all?"
Stuart crossed his long legs and looked at her admiringly.
"I'll be honest," he said with deliberation. "I don't think I have ever seen anything more dazzlingly beautiful than your banquet and ball, except——"
"Except what!" she interrupted sharply.
"Except the woman who conceived and executed it."
"That's better, but you must give the credit to the artists I hired."