Desmond was dancing with Miss Delawny——!
The frivolous comment on Roy's lips was checked by the look in his partner's eyes. Impossible not to wonder if Lance had actually been engaged; or if——?
In any case—a knock for Miss Arden's vanity. A shade too severe, perhaps; yet sympathy for her was tinged with exultation that Lance had held his own. Mrs Ranyard was right. Here was a man set firmly on his feet....
Miss Arden's voice drew his wandering attention back to herself. "We may as well finish this. Or are you also—engaged?"
Her light stress on the word held a significance he did not miss.
"To you—if you will!" he answered gallantly, hand on heart. "More than I deserve—as you said; but still——"
"It's just possible for a woman to be magnanimous!" she capped him, smiling. "And it's just possible for a man to be—the other thing! Remember that—when you get back to your eternal scribbling!"
An hour later he rode homeward with a fine confusion of sensations and impressions, doubts and desires seething in his brain. Miss Arden was delightful, but a trifle unsettling. She must not be allowed to distract him from the work he loved.