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It was a stag lunch As Forrest explained, the girls were "hen- partying"

"I doubt you'll see a soul of them till four o'clock, when Ernestine, that's one of Paula's sisters, is going to wallop ed"

And Grahah the lunch, where only men sat, took his part in the conversation on breeds and breeding, learned much, contributed a mite from his oorld-experiences, and was unable to shake froe of his hostess, the vision of the rounded and delicate white of her against the dark wet background of the swi over prize Merinos and Berkshire gilts, continually that vision burned up under his eyelids Even at four, in the tennis court, hiainst Ernestine, heball would suddenly be eclipsed by the i on the back of a great horse

Grahah an outlander, knew his California, and, while every girl of the swiowned for dinner, was not surprised to find no man si hinificent scale on which it operated

Between the first and second gongs, all the guests drifted into the long dining roo, Dick Forrest arrived and precipitated cocktails And Graham impatiently waited the appearance of the woman who had worried his eyes since noon He was prepared for all eous stripped athletes had he seen slouched into conventional gar, to expect toosuit when it should appear garbed as civilized woasp when she entered She paused, naturally, for just the right flash of an instant in the arched doorway, lilow of the indirect lighting full upon her Grahaasped apart, and remained apart, his eyes ravished with the beauty and surprise of her he had deeet of a child-worand lady, as only a srand on occasion

Taller in truth was she, as well as in seeed her, and as finely proportioned in her gown as in her swih; the healthy tinge of her skin that was clean and clear and white; the singing throat, full and round, incoown, dull blue, a sort ofbody, with flowing sleeves and triold-jeweled bands