"Blanche Tompkins, you are mad to parade yourself in this manner," and smiling cynically, "your attendant cavalier wears quite a jubilant air, looking so proud of his proximity to such a conventional belle of the evening. What with 'hidden wife,' and this little farce, the place smells of brimstone; let us all away," she said with a forced laugh, "to the halls of Comus and a purer sphere; Lord Rivers, your arm."

"Everly," demanded his host, "what is the meaning of all this?" having heard from Tisdale Follard, not two hours before, that Mrs. Haughton had given him permission to press his suit with Miss Tompkins, Madame always considering Everly her own property.

"Allow me one moment," said Delrose following Kate in her exit. "I find I must bid you and the Colonel adieu; I go to London by the midnight, from whence I think, across the water."

In spite of herself the colour came and went in Kate's cheeks.

"Are they all mad," she thought; "is he acting or what?"

The Colonel, relieved, and still feeling that he did not much care, now that he had the sympathetic friendship of Alice Esmondet near, whether he remained at Rose cottage or no, still said, giving his hand.

"I wish you a pleasant trip."

"I doubt it," said Delrose inwardly; outwardly, "thank you," and being a born actor, continued carelessly, "I shall be as happy and free from care as the waves on the sportive ocean, for congratulate me, I bring my bride with me, no 'hidden wife,' though the _News_ and _Daily_ will have us; _Truth_ also, will have a hand in," and he added lightly, "when a man knows editors and that ilk will shortly wet their pens for him, he may as well whet the appetite of society by saying only this and nothing more. In my bride of the sea, you will see a fair cousin of my own, the daughter of Vivian Delrose," and turning to Kate, whom he had furtively watched said, as he bid her adieu, "by gaining a wife I lose a hostess, who has won my heart." With a few careless words to the others, this man than whom no other ever held his own through life and in spite of fate better, now made his exit.

CHAPTER XLIII.

WEE DETECTIVE PLAYS A WINNING CARD.

From the time Fanny Clarmont has appeared like a ghost of the departed, Delrose determined to get rid of the bother of it all by going at once to Rose Cottage; the huntress to whom he had been engaged for the first dance he handed over to Tedril. He would write Kate from the cottage, but first, he would punish her for torturing him, by lingering with Trevalyon and giving her smiles to Lord Rivers, by a public little speech as to his leave-taking, and keep her preoccupied by his avowal as to who was to accompany him, (she knowing naught of their relationship) as to give her no taste for flirtation. (Simple Simon could not read her, she is a woman!)