Trent Intervenes. E. Bentley C.

She had come to approve highly of Trent, who had made himself excellent company, and she saw her way to being quite admirable, for she was in dancing spirits. In ten minutes she was on the best of terms with the fat, vivacious woman of the inn. Trent, who had been dispatched to telephone their plight to George Lancey, and had added that they were enjoying it very much, returned to find Lady Bosworth in the little garden behind the inn, with her skirts pinned up, peeling potatoes and singing ‘Il segreto per esse felice,’ while her sister beat up something in a bowl, and the landlady, busy with cooking, laughed and screamed cheerful observations from the kitchen. Seeing himself unemployable, Trent withdrew; sitting on a convenient wall, he took a leaf from his sketchbook and began to devise and decorate a menu of an absurdity suited to the spirit of the hour.

      It was a more than cheerful dinner that they had under a canopy of vine-leaves on a tiny terrace overlooking the lake. Twilight came on unnoticed. It was already dark when Trent, returning from an inspection of the boat, advised that they should return by the steamer if they would make sure of getting home that night; it would take an hour, but it would be safer. And presently there was a long-drawn hoot from down the lake, and a great black mass crowned with a galaxy of yellow lights came moving smoothly through the darkness.

      It was as they sought for places on the crowded upper deck that Mrs Lancey put her hand on Trent’s arm. ‘There hasn’t been a sign of it all evening,’ she whispered. ‘What does that mean?’

      ‘It means,’ murmured Trent, ‘that we got her away from the cause at the critical time, without anybody knowing we were going to do it.’

      ‘Whom do you mean by “anybody”?’

      ‘How on earth should I know? Here comes your sister.’

      It was not until the following afternoon that Trent found an opportunity of being alone with his hostess in the garden.

      ‘She is perfectly delighted at having escaped it last night,’ said Mrs Lancey. ‘She says she knew it would pass off, but she hasn’t the least notion how she was cured. Nor have I.’

      ‘She isn’t,’ replied Trent. ‘Last night was only a beginning and we can’t get her unexpectedly stranded for the evening every day. The next move can be made now, if you consent to it. Lady Bosworth will be out until this evening, I believe?’