As they enter, mirth ceases. A silence falls upon the group. Everybody looks at anything but Violet and her companion.  
These last advance in a manner up the room, yet with somewhat of the air of those who are in the possession of embarrassing news that must be told before much time goes by. The thought of this perhaps deadens their perception and makes them blind to the fact that the others are quiet.
 
"It has been such a charming day," says Violet, at last, in a rather mechanical tone. Yet, in spite of its , it breaks the spell of and confusion that has bound the others in its chains, and restores them to speech.
 
They all smile, and say, "Yes, indeed," or "Oh, yes, indeed," or plain "Yes," in a breath. They all feel intensely obliged to Violet for her very ordinary little remark.
 
Then it is to watch the petit soins, the delicate little attentions that the women in a carefully suppressed fashion upon the bride-elect,—as she already is to them. There is nothing under heaven so dear to a woman's heart as a happy love-affair,—except, indeed, it be an unhappy one. Just get a woman to understand you have broken or are breaking (the last is the best) your heart about any one, and she will be your friend on the spot. It is so unutterably sweet to her to be a confidante in any secret where Dan Cupid holds first place.
 
Mona, rising, pushes Violet gently into her own chair, a little black-and-gold wicker thing, cushioned.
 
"Yes, sit there," she says, a new note of tender sympathy in her tone, keeping her hand on Violet's shoulder as the latter makes some faint polite effort to rise again. "You must indeed. It is such a dear, cosey, comfortable little chair."
 
Why it has become suddenly necessary that Violet should be made cosey and comfortable she omits to explain.
 
Then Dorothy, going up to the new-comer, removes her hat from her head, and pats her cheeks, and tells her with one of her loveliest smiles that she has "such a delicious color, dearest! just like a wee bit of fresh apple-blossom!"
 
Apple-blossom suggests the , whereon Violet reddens perceptibly, and Nolly grows cold with fright, and feels a little more will make him faint.
 
Lastly, Lady Rodney comes to the front with,—
 
"You have not tired yourself, dear, I hope. The day has been so oppressively warm, more like July than May. Would you like your tea now, Violet? We can have it half an hour earner if you wish."
 
All these evidences of affection Violet notices in a dreamy, far-off fashion: she is the happier because of them; yet she only appreciates them languidly, being filled with one absorbing thought, that dulls all others. She accepts the chair, the compliment, and the tea with grace, but with somewhat vague .
 
To his brothers are behaving with the utmost bonhommie. They have called him "old fellow" twice, and once Geoffrey has slapped him on the back with a well meant, and no doubt encouraging, but trying.
 
And Jack is greatly pleased with them, and, seeing everything just now through a rose-colored veil, tells him self he is blessed in his own people, and that Geoffrey and old Nick are two of the decentest old men alive. Yet he too is a little , being lost in an endeavor to catch Violet's eyes,—which eyes refuse to be so caught.
 
Nolly alone of all the group stands , joining not at all in the unspoken congratulations, and feeling indeed like nothing but the guilty culprit that he is.
 
"How you were all laughing when we came in!" says Violet, presently: "we could hear you all along the corridor. What was it about?"
 
Everybody at this smiles involuntarily,—everybody, that is, except Nolly, who feels faint again, and turns a rich and lively .
 
"It was some joke, of course?" goes on Violet, not having received any answer to her first question.
 
"It was," says Nicholas, feeling a reply can no longer be shirked. Then he says, "Ahem!" and turns his glance upon the carpet.
 
But Geoffrey to whom the situation has its charm, takes up the broken thread.
 
"It was one of Nolly's good things," he says, . "And you know what he is capable of when he likes! It was funny to the last degree,—calculated to set any 'table in a roar.'—Give it to us again, Nolly—it bears repeating.—Ask him to tell it to you, Violet."
 
"Yes, do, Nolly," says Violet.
 
"Go on, Noll," exclaims Dorothy, in her most encouraging tone. "Let Violet hear it. She will understand it."
 
"I would, of course, with pleasure," the unfortunate Nolly,—"only perhaps Violet heard it before!"
 
"Well, really, do you know, I think she did!" says Mona, so that they all smile again.
 
"I call this beastly mean," says Mr. Darling to Geoffrey in an indignant aside. "You all gave your oaths to before I began, and now you are to betray me, I call it right-down shabby. And I sha'n't forget it to any of you, let me tell you that."
 
"My dear fellow, you can't have forgotten it so soon," says Geoffrey, pretending to misunderstand this whisper. "Don't be shy! or shall I refresh your memory? It was, you remember, about——"
 
"Oh, yes—yes—I know; it doesn't matter; (I'll pay you out for this"), says Nolly, , in an aside.
 
"Well, I do like a good story," says Violet, carelessly.
 
"Then Nolly's last will suit you down to the ground," says Nicholas. "Besides its wit, it possesses the rare quality of being true. It really occurred. It is founded on fact. He himself for the truth of it."
 
"Oh, go on; do," says Mr. Darling, in a second aside, who is by this time a brilliant purple from fear and indi............