e door, seized a wine card, and puffing generously, arrived with the
trophy at the table, much as Rothschild's messenger must have reached
London with the news that the British were winning at Waterloo. Having
then succeeded in making the American order a red wine when he wanted
white, Monsieur Beauchamp withdrew in a state of histrionic
self-satisfaction.

With a smile of relief Selwyn looked across the table at the girl.
Even in the soft glow of the lamp, which made for flattery, it seemed
to him that the vivacity of the morning had disappeared, and in its
place was the petulance of the previous evening. Her eyes, which
seemed when they were riding to have caught something of the alchemy of
the skies, were steady and lighter in shade. Again he noticed the
suggestion of discontent about the mouth, and the upper lip looked thin
and lacking in colour.

'It is your turn to-night to be pensive,' she said.

'I was thinking,' he answered, 'that it is hardly twenty-four hours
since we met, and yet I have as many impressions of you as an ordinary
woman would give in six months. For instance, last night when you
entered the room'----

'But, Mr. Selwyn, any girl knows enough to arrive late when there is no
woman within twenty years of her age in the room. The effect is
certain.'

There was no humour in her voice, but just a tone of weary, world-wise
knowledge. A look of displeasure clouded his face.

'Surely,' he said, 'with your qualities and appearance, you don't need
such an elaborate technique.'

'In a world where there is so little that is genuine, why should I
debar myself from the pleasure of being a humbug?'

'Come, come,' he said, smiling, 'you are not going to join the ranks of
England's detractors?'

She shrugged her shoulders. 'I'm certainly not going to become a
professional critic like Stackton Dunckley, who hasn't even the excuse
that he's an Irishman; or Lucia Carlotti, who hardly ever leaves London
because her dinners cost her nothing. But I reserve the right of
personal resentment.'

IV.

They were interrupted by a waiter, who removed the soup-plates with
studied dexterity, and substituted _Troncon de turbotin Duglere_;
_pommes vapeur_, the dish which had delivered the fatal blow against
the Cabinet Minister's digestive armour.

'Perhaps I am too personal,' resumed Selwyn after the completion of
this task, 'but last night one of the impressions I took away with me
was your critical at