love with some
namby-pamby fellow of the drawing-rooms rather than with me, though I
have now, as I have had always, the sense to know that she is worth ten
thousand of me.

I came back to something like sanity in the first ten minutes, and we
sat there with no lack of things to talk about, a trouble from which I
believe lovers do occasionally suffer. I am not going to pretend that
the count and Italy occupied all our minds, but they had their full
share of our thoughts, and we both knew that there was no question of
marriage just at present. With the history of her broken-hearted mother
before me I was in no mood to ask her to be my widow, and there was a
growing certainty that there was fighting in front of us, and that it
was likely to begin pretty soon.

If Lady Rollinson, Violet, the count, and myself had been dining
alone that evening, I should probably have been allowed, under the
circumstances, to dispense with evening-dress, and so there would have
been no necessity for my going home again before dinner. The count,
however, had already advised me of expected guests, and however
fascinating the society in which I found myself, I had to break away
from it for an hour.

The spring dusk was already thick as I passed along Bond Street, and
there was a slight fog abroad; but at the time of which I am writing the
West End shops kept open hours later than they do now, and there was no
sign of cessation of business. There were a good many foot-passengers
abroad, and in front of a brilliantly lighted jeweller's-shop I found
myself brought to a stand-still by a little block in the traffic. A
carriage stood immediately in front of the shop, and I was about to step
round it into the horse road when I saw that a lady was bowing to me
from it, and discovered that the lady was no other than the Baroness
Bonnar. I raised my hat in answer to her salutation, and as I did so
Brunow emerged from the crowd and handed a small packet to her. She took
it from him with a smile, and gave the word to the coachman. I had seen
that she had a companion with her, a lady whose back was turned to me;
but I had taken no notice of the fact, and, indeed, had not given it a
thought. But as the coachman wheeled round his horses the lady's face
came for a moment into the full light of the brilliantly illuminated
window, and I, standing wedged there in the momentary block of
pedestrians, met her glance point-blank. She gave not the faintest sign
o