oing, I s'pose--to keep it up, don't you
know? We mustn't let it run down. But if we don't enjoy ourselves down
it goes. And that doesn't do, does it?"

He flicked the ash from his cigar.

"What's the special row this time?" he continued, without any heated
curiosity, but with distinct sympathy.

Mrs. Shiffney looked slightly more cheerful. She enjoyed telling things
if the things were closely connected with herself.

"Well, I want to start for a cruise," she began. "I can't remain for
ever glued to Grosvenor Square. I must move about and see something."

She had just been for a month in Paris.

"Of course. What are we here for?" observed her husband.

"You always understand! Sit down, you old thing!"

Mr. Shiffney sat down, gently pulling up his trousers.

"And the row is," she continued, shaking her shoulders, "that I want
Claude Heath to come and he won't. And, since he won't, he's really the
only living man I want to have on the cruise."

"Who is he?" observed Mr. Shiffney. "I've never heard of him. Is he one
of your special pals?"

"Not yet. I met him at Max's. He's a composer, and I want to know what
he's like."

"I expect he's like all the rest."

"No, he isn't!" she observed decisively.

"Why won't he come? Perhaps he's a bad sailor."

"He didn't even trouble himself to say that. He was in such a hurry to
refuse that he didn't bother about an excuse. And this afternoon he
called, when I was in, and never asked for me, only left cards and
bolted, although I had been to his house to ask him to come on _The
Wanderer_."

"Afraid of you, is he?"

"I don't know, I'm sure. He's never been among _us_."

"Poor chap! But surely that's a reason for him to want to get in?"

"Wouldn't you think so? Wouldn't anyone think so? The way I'm bombarded!
But he seems only anxious to keep out of everything."

"A pose very likely."

"I don't believe it is."

"I leave it to you. No one sharper in London. Is he a gentleman--all
that sort of thing?"

"Oh, of course!"

Mr. Shiffney pulled up his trousers a little more, exposing a pair of
striped silk socks which emerged from shining boots protected by white
spats.

"To be sure. If he hadn't been he'd have jumped at you and _The
Wanderer_."

"Naturally. I shan't go at all now! What an unlucky woman I always am!"

"You never let anyone know it."

"Well, Jimmy, I'm not quite a fool. Be down on your luck and not a soul
will stay near you."

"I should th