rienne, the first person she encountered was
Olga Lermontof. She still retained her dislike of the accompanist and
was preparing to pass by with a casual remark upon the coldness of the
weather, when something in the Russian's pale, fatigued face arrested
her.

"How frightfully tired you look!" she exclaimed, pausing on the
staircase as the two made their way up together.

"I am, rather," returned Miss Lermontof indifferently. "I've been
playing accompaniments all afternoon, and I've had no tea."

Diana hesitated an instant, then she said impulsively--"Oh, do come
into my room and let me make you a cup."

Olga Lermontof regarded her with a faint surprise.

"Thanks," she said in her abrupt way. "I will."

A cheerful little fire was burning in the grate, and the room presented
a very comfortable and home-like appearance, for Diana had added a
couple of easy-chairs and several Liberty cushions to its somewhat
sparse furniture. A heavy curtain, hung in front of the door to
exclude draughts, gave an additional cosy touch, and fresh flowers
adorned both chimney-piece and table.

Olga Lermontof let her long, lithe figure down into one of the
easy-chairs with a sigh of satisfaction, while Diana set the kettle on
the fire to boil, and produced from the depths of a cupboard a canister
of tea and a tin of attractive-looking biscuits.

"I often make my own tea up here," she observed. "I detest having it
in that great barrack of a dining-room downstairs. The
bread-and-butter is always so thick--like doorsteps!--and the cake is
very emphatically of the 'plain, home-made' variety."

Olga nodded.

"You look very comfortable here," she replied. "If you saw my tiny
bandbox of a room on the fourth floor you'd realise what a sybarite you
are."

Diana wondered a little why Olga Lermontof should need to economise by
having such a small room and one so high up. She was invariably
well-dressed--Diana had frequently caught glimpses of silken petticoats
and expensive shoes--and she had not in the least the air of a woman
who is accustomed to small means.

Almost as though she had uttered her thought aloud, Miss Lermontof
replied to it, smiling rather satirically.

"You're thinking I don't look the part? It's true I haven't always
been so poor as I am now. But a lot of my money is invested in
Ru--abroad, and owing to--to various things"--she stammered a
little--"I can't get hold of it just at present, so I'm dependent o