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Strolling toward them from the tent Beaufort advanced over the lawn, tall, heavy, too tightly buttoned into a London frock-coat, with one of his own orchids in its buttonhole Archer, who had not seen hie in his appearance In the hot suht his floridness seemed heavy and bloated, and but for his erect square-shouldered walk he would have looked like an over-fed and over-dressed old man

There were all sorts of ruone off on a long cruise to the West Indies in his new steam-yacht, and it was reported that, at various points where he had touched, a lady rese had been seen in his company The steam-yacht, built in the Clyde, and fitted with tiled bath-rooms and other unheard-of luxuries, was said to have cost him half a million; and the pearl necklace which he had presented to his wife on his return was as s are apt to be Beaufort's fortune was substantial enough to stand the strain; and yet the disquieting rumours persisted, not only in Fifth Avenue but in Wall Street Some people said he had speculated unfortunately in railways, others that he was being bled by one of the most insatiable members of her profession; and to every report of threatened insolvency Beaufort replied by a fresh extravagance: the building of a ne of orchid-houses, the purchase of a new string of race-horses, or the addition of a new Meissonnier or Cabanel to his picture-gallery

He advanced toward the Marchioness and Newland with his usual half-sneering smile "Hullo, Medora! Did the trotters do their business? Fortyyour nerves had to be spared" He shook hands with Archer, and then, turning back with them, placed himself on Mrs Manson's other side, and said, in a low voice, a feords which their companion did not catch

The Marchioness replied by one of her queer foreign jerks, and a "Que voulez-vous?" which deepened Beaufort's frown; but he produced a good selanced at Archer to say: "You know May's going to carry off the first prize"

"Ah, then it remains in the family," Medora rippled; and at that irlish cloud ofout of the tent In her white dress, with a pale green ribbon about the waist and a wreath of ivy on her hat, she had the same Diana-like aloofness as when she had entered the Beaufort ball-rooht seeh her heart; and though her husband knew that she had the capacity for both he marvelled afresh at the way in which experience dropped away from her