ducation, wit, learning, beauty?"

"Go on! Excellent!"

"Who has everything as against my nothing! _What_ value, Madam?"

"Why, gentle idiot, to get an answer ask a question, always."

"I have asked it."

"But you can not guess that _I_ might ask one? So, then, one answer for
another, we might do--what you Americans call some business--eh? Will
you answer _my_ question?"

"Ask it, then."

"_Were you married_--that other night?"

So, then, she was woman after all, and curious! Her sudden speech came
like a stab; but fortunately my dull nerves had not had time to change
my face before a thought flashed into my mind. Could I not make
merchandise of my sorrow? I pulled myself into control and looked her
fair in the face.

"Madam," I said, "look at my face and read your own answer."

She looked, searching me, while every nerve of me tingled; but at last
she shook her head. "No," she sighed. "I can not yet say." She did not
see the sweat starting on my forehead.

I raised my kerchief over my head. "A truce, then, Madam! Let us leave
the one question against the other for a time."

"Excellent! I shall get my answer first, in that case, and for nothing."

"How so?"

"I shall only watch you. As we are here now, I were a fool, worse than
you, if I could not tell whether or not you are married. None the less,
I commend you, I admire you, because you do not tell me. If you are
_not_, you are disappointed. If you _are_, you are eager!"

"I am in any case delighted that I can interest Madam."

"Ah, but you do! I have not been interested, for so long! Ah, the great
heavens, how fat was Mr. Pakenham, how thin was Mr. Calhoun! But
you--come, Monsieur, the night is long. Tell me of yourself. I have
never before known a savage."

"Value for value only, Madam! Will you tell me in turn of yourself?"

"All?" She looked at me curiously.

"Only so much as Madam wishes."

I saw her dark eyes study me once more. At last she spoke again. "At
least," she said, "it would be rather vulgar if I did not explain some
of the things which become your right to know when I ask you to come
into this home, as into my other home in Washington."

"In Heaven's name, how many of these homes have you, then? Are they all
alike?"

"Five only, now," she replied, in the most matter-of-fact manner in the
world, "and, of course, all quite alike."

"Where else?"

"In Paris, in Vienna, in London," she answered. "You see this one, you
see t