r of being bored. It was on this ground that they were
all terrified of Romer.

"Don't you think, Romer, if we both go it will look too marked? Almost
as if we were vulgarly trying to get Daphne married? A horrid idea!
Besides, if you don't turn up Harry can ask some one amusing in your
place. You see, he's promised to show Van Buren _interesting_ people....
No, darling, I don't mean it in that way. I'm sure you're interesting
enough, but I mean queer people, and celebrities and things. That's what
Van Buren wants, and that's what he must have. And that's one reason why
he's so delighted with Harry, because Harry can get them all, through
being a sort of artist, you see. What a good thing, after all, that he
didn't drift into diplomacy! As he's an American you can't expect Van
Buren to be really modern, and he has all the old-fashioned ideas about
what _he_ calls culture. He wants to go in for being intellectual and
artistic and knowing what he calls people with brains who really count.
I mean he wants to meet people like Seymour Hicks and Waller, and Thomas
Hardy, and so on, and not only celebrities and people who have made
their name, but even people with a future, and, in fact, any peculiar,
well-educated creatures--anything out of the way."

Romer looked rather dazed.

"Really? Then will Hicks or Hardy be asked in my place?"

Valentia laughed. "Don't be so absurdly literal and hopelessly idiotic,
darling! No, of course not. But I dare say Harry will get--well--perhaps
Rathbone, the tattooed man, his Oxford friend."

"Really! And will this chap's being tattooed make the party go off
better?"

"Oh yes, Romer dear; in a sort of way, because it makes him interesting,
although you can't see it. When he was quite young he was always having
lifelong passions for people, and being tattooed in their honour. He has
blue chain bracelets with initials on his left wrist, and a heart and an
anchor with other initials on his right arm, and a flight of
swallows--oh, and goodness knows what! In fact, when you come to think
of it Mr. Rathbone is really a kind of serial story--with illustrations.
I wonder Lord Northcliffe doesn't bring him out in monthly parts!" She
laughed again. "Harry might even get Hereford Vaughan, the man who has
written all the plays that are going on now. Harry knows him quite well,
and Van Buren would be so pleased."

"Does Daphne want to many this American chap?"

"Good gracious, no! The idea! Why,