adful band!"

She spoke in a kind of intense hiss, and I took her out at once, leaving
the others to collect our hats and coats and to hunt up the Galleotti
family. When we reached the entrance hall she sank into a seat. I
thought she was going to faint and felt very uncomfortable. She shut
her eyes and murmured in a feeble way. I bent down to hear what she
was trying to say, and was relieved to find that she was asking for a
cigarette. I gave her one at once. I even lit it for her as she seemed
very weak. It did her good. When she had inhaled three or four mouthfuls
of smoke she was able to speak quite audibly and had forgotten all about
the horror of the band. Her mind went back to the Galleotti family.

"Did you notice the muscular development of those men?" she said. "I
don't think I ever saw more perfect symmetry, the tallest of the three
especially. The play of his shoulder muscles was superb. I wonder if
he would sit for me. I do a little modelling, you know. Some day I must
show you my things. I did a baby faun just before I left London. It
isn't good, of course; but I can't help knowing that it has feeling."

The tallest Galleotti probably has feeling too, of a different kind.
I expect he would have refused Gorman's invitation to supper if he had
known that he was invited in order to give Mrs. Ascher an opportunity of
studying his muscular development at close quarters. Perhaps he had some
idea that he was to be on show and did not like it. Instead of wearing
his spangled tights he came to supper in a very ill-fitting tweed suit,
which completely concealed his symmetry. The other two men were equally
inconsiderate. Mrs. Briggs wore a rusty black skirt and a somewhat
soiled blouse. Mrs. Ascher was disappointed.

She showed her annoyance by ignoring the Galleotti Family. This was
rather hard on Gorman, who had invited the family solely to please her
and then found that she would not speak to them. She took a chair in a
corner next the wall, and beckoned to Tim Gorman to sit beside her.
Tim was miserably frightened and dodged about behind the tallest of
the Galleottis to avoid her eye. I expect her manner when the band was
playing had terrified him. I felt certain that I should be snubbed, but,
to avoid general awkwardness, I took the chair beside Mrs. Ascher.

I tried to cheer her up a little.

"Just think," I whispered, "if Mr. Briggs looks so commonplace in
every-day clothes, other men, even I perhaps, mig