mansions of
South African Jews, whom one must meet here or keep out of society
altogether. Our country houses have gone the same way. Our Court set is
dowdy, dull to a degree, and common in a different fashion. You are
right. I have lost my love for England, partly because of my marriage,
partly because of those things which have come to England herself."

For the first time there was a little flush of colour in Anna's
exquisitely pale cheeks. There was even animation in her tone as she
turned towards her friend.

"Mildred," she exclaimed, "it is splendid to hear you say what is really
in your mind! I am so glad you have spoken to me like this. I feel these
things, too. Now I am not nearly so English as you. My mother was English
and my father Austrian. Therefore, only half of me should be English.
Yet, although I am so much further removed from England than you are, I
have suddenly felt a return of all my old affection for her."

"You are going to tell me why?" her companion begged.

"Of course! It is because I believe--it is too ridiculous--but I believe
that I am in your position with the circumstances reversed. I am
beginning to care in the most foolish way for an unmistakable
Englishman."

"If we had missed this little chance of conversation," the Princess
declared, "I should have been miserable for the rest of my life! There is
the Duke hanging about behind. For heaven's sake, don't turn. Thank
goodness he has gone away! Now go on, dear. Tell me about him at once. I
can't imagine who it may be. I have watched you with so many men, and I
know quite well, so long as that little curl is at the corner of your
lips, that they none of them count. Do I know him?"

"I do not think so," Anna replied. "He is not a very important person."

"It isn't the man you were dining with in the Cafe de Berlin when Prince
Karl came in?"

"Yes, it is he!"

The Princess made a little grimace.

"But how unsuitable, my dear," she exclaimed, "if you are really in
earnest! What is the use of your thinking of an Englishman? He is quite
nice, I know. His mother and my mother were friends, and we met once or
twice. He was very kind to me in Paris, too. But for a serious affair--"

"Well, it may not come to that," Anna interrupted, "but there it is. I
suppose that it is partly for his sake that I feel this depression."

"I should have thought that he himself would have been a little out of
sympathy with his country just now," the P