said.

With a quick tug and push she had opened the window on her own side
before he could stop her.

"Oh, will you drive to 89 Ryder Street first, please," he heard her say.
Then she sank back with a pursed-up smile of triumph. "I've _no_
intention of going to bed yet," she explained.

"I've no intention of opening the door till I've taken you home," he
rejoined.

She made no answer till the carriage drew up opposite his flat.

"It would be deplorable if you made a scene on the pavement," she
observed carelessly.

Then she stepped out and told the driver to go back to Belgrave Square
for Mrs. O'Rane.

It was a moon-lit night between half-past eleven and twelve. Ryder
Street had roused to life with a widely-spaced but steady stream of men
returning to bed from Pall Mall and sparing the fag-end of their
attention for the unexpected tall girl who stood wrapped in a long silk
shawl in the shadow of a bachelor door-way. The brougham turned round
and drove away. Eric lighted another cigarette.

"Am I right in thinking that you're being obstinate?" Barbara enquired
after some moments of silence.

"If you want me to take you home, I'll take you home. Otherwise I shall
leave you here, go round to the club, explain that I've lost my
latch-key and get a bed there."

"You're almost oriental in your hospitality," she laughed.

"I've no hospitality to spare for a girl of twenty-two at this hour of
the night."

She stretched out her arm to him. In observing the beauty of her
slender, long fingers and the whiteness of her arm against the long
fringe of the shawl, Eric forgot his guard. She twitched the cigarette
from his lips and laughed like a child, as she blew out a cloud of
smoke. Cigarette, shawl and manner suddenly reminded him of Carmen.

"You're so conventional," she sighed.

Eric became suddenly irritable.

"Lady Barbara, you're behaving idiotically!" he cried. "I know you'd do
anything for a new sensation, but I'm not going to help. Possibly I'm
old-fashioned. If you think----"

"I'm so thirsty," she interrupted. "Have you any soda-water?"

"You're sure to find plenty in Berkeley Square."

"But you're _afraid_ to give me any, afraid of being compromised?"

"I've too many things to be afraid of without bothering about that. Lady
Barbara, you've several brothers, I've one sister. If one of your
brothers saw fit to invite _my_ sister to a bachelor flat----"

"But you _haven't_ invited me!"

"I should