; and many was the time I had chaffed
Courtney, or some other unfortunate, who had been so stranded beside
Her Ponderousness. To-night, however, my turn was come, and Courtney
was getting his revenge.

My only solace were the occasional smiles that Dehra gave me--smiles
that Courtney noted instantly and, I fancied, understood; and that
Lotzen intercepted; but what he thought I did not know and did not
care. Who ever cares what his defeated rival thinks!

We had been there for, possibly, half an hour when, happening to glance
outward, I saw Madeline Spencer and an elderly woman, and the man who
had been in the box with her, coming slowly down the Garden. It
chanced that a table near us had just been vacated and they were shown
to it by the head-waiter, whose excessive obsequiousness proved the
size of his tip.

Mrs. Spencer gave our party a single quick glance, as she drew off her
gloves, and then fell to conversing with her companions.

All this I had noted out of the corner of my eye, as it were. I had
not the least doubt she had recognized me at the Opera, and I did not
intend to give her a chance to speak to me--which I knew she would try
to do, the Pittsburgh experience notwithstanding, if she thought it
might further her present plans or pleasures.

Lotzen, however, had been drinking rather freely and was not so chary
with his glances. Indeed, he stared so frankly that Lady Helen did not
hesitate to prod him about it.

"I would take her to be an American," I heard him say.

"Without a doubt," Lady Helen answered.

Inwardly, I consigned the Spencer woman to perdition. They would be
interrogating me about her, next; and I did not know just how to
answer. I would have to admit knowing her; that would only whet their
curiosity and bring further questions. To tell the whole story was
absurd--and, yet, only a little of it would leave a rather unpleasant
inference against me. At any rate, on Dehra's account, I did not want
the matter discussed.

I could feel Lotzen's glance, and I knew he was waiting only for a
break in Lady Radnor's discourse. I gave him as much of my back as
possible, and encouraged her to proceed. She was on the Tenement House
problem; but I had no idea what she was advocating, in particular. I
did not care. All I wanted was talk--talk--talk. And, whenever she
showed signs of slowing up, I flung in a word and spurred her on again.

And she responded nobly; and I marvelled at h