n replied gratefully.

Louise broke away from the little group and came across toward them.

"Free at last!" she exclaimed. "Now let us go out and have some tea."

They made their way down the little passage and out into the sudden
blaze of the sunlit streets. Two cars were drawn up outside the stage
door.

"The Carlton or Rumpelmayer's?" asked the prince, who had overtaken them
upon the pavement.

"The Carlton, I think," Louise decided. "We can get a quiet table there
inside the restaurant. You bring Sophy, will you, Eugene? I am going to
take possession of Mr. Strangewey."

The prince, with a little bow, pointed to the door of his limousine,
which a footman was holding open. Louise led John to a smaller car which
was waiting in the rear.

"The Carlton," she told the man, as he arranged the rugs. "And now," she
added, turning to John, "why have you come to London? How long are you
going to stay? What are you going to do? And--most important of all--in
what spirit have you come?"

John breathed a little sigh of contentment. They were moving slowly down
a back street to take their place in the tide of traffic which flooded
the main thoroughfares.

"That sounds so like you," he said. "I came up last night, suddenly. I
have no idea how long I am going to stay; I have no idea what I am going
to do. As for the spirit in which I have come--well, I should call it an
inquiring one."

"A very good start," Louise murmured approvingly, "but still a little
vague!"

"Then I will do away with all vagueness. I came to see you," John
confessed bluntly.

"Dear me!" she exclaimed, looking at him with a little smile. "How
downright you are!"

"Country methods," he reminded her.

"Don't overdo it," she begged.

"The truth--" he began.

"Has to be handled very carefully," she said, interrupting him. "The
truth is either beautiful or crude, and the people who meddle with such
a wonderful thing need a great deal of tact. You have come to see me,
you say. Very well, then, I will be just as frank. I have been hoping
that you would come!"

"You can't imagine how good it is to hear you say that," he declared.

"Mind," she went on, "I have been hoping it for more reasons than one.
You have come to realize, I hope, that it is your duty to try to see a
little more of life than you possibly can leading a patriarchal
existence among your flocks and herds."

"That may be so," John assented. "I have often thought of our
conver