--I couldn't tell you where it is--but
everybody seemed to know everybody else and it was so jolly and
informal--and such good food! I met a number of people there some of
whom have called on me since--"

"What sort of people?"

"About every interesting sort--men like Captain Dane, writers,
travellers, men engaged in unusual professions. And there were a few
delightful women present, all in some business or profession. Mlle.
Delauny of the Opera was there--so pretty and so unaffected. And there
was also that handsome suffragette who looks like Jeanne d' Arc--"

"Nina Grey."

"Yes. And there was a rather strange and fascinating woman--a
physician I believe--but I am not sure. Anyway she is associated with
the psychical research people, and she asked if she might come to see
me--"

He made an impatient movement--quite involuntary--and Hafiz who was
timid, sprang from Athalie's lap and retreated, tail waving, and ears
flattened for expected blandishments to recall him.

Athalie glanced up at the man beside her with a laugh on her lips,
which died there instantly.

"What is the matter, Clive?"

"Nothing," he said.

His sullen face remained in profile, and after a moment she laid her
hand lightly, questioningly on his sleeve.

Without turning he said: "I don't know what is the matter with me, so
don't ask me. Something seems to be wrong. _I_ am, probably.... And I
think I'll go home, now."

But he did not stir.

After a few moments she said very gently: "Are you displeased with me
for anything I have said or done? I can't imagine--"

"You can't expect me to feel very much flattered by the knowledge that
you are constantly seen with other men where you and I were once so
well known."

"Clive! Is there anything wrong in my going?"

"Wrong? No:--if your own sense of--of--" but the right word--if there
were such--eluded him.

"I know how you feel," she said in a low voice. "I wrote you that it
seemed strange, almost sad, to be with other men where you and I had
been together so often and so--so happily.

"Somehow it seemed to be an invasion of our privacy, of our
intimacy--for me to dine with other men at the same tables, be served
by the same waiters, hear the same music. But I didn't know how to
avoid it when I was taken there by other men. Could you tell me what I
should have done?"

He made no reply; his boyish face grew almost sulky, now.

Presently he rose as though to get his coat: she rose also