chmen rave about her."

"And Frenchwomen?"

"Oh, they all know her. She carries things through. That really is the
art of life, to be able to carry things through. Her bronzes are quite
remarkable. By the way, she has an excellent brain. She cares for
the arts. She is by no means a fribble. I have been surprised by her
knowledge more than once."

"She seems very fond of Lady Sellingworth. She wants to get her over to
Paris."

"Adela Sellingworth won't go."

"Why not?"

"She seems to hate Paris now. It is years since she had stayed there."

After a pause Craven said:

"Lady Sellingworth is something of a mystery, I think. I wonder--I
wonder if she feels lonely in that big house of hers."

"Far more people feel lonely than seem lonely," said Braybrooke.

"I expect they do. But I think that somehow Lady Sellingworth seems
lonely. And yet she is full of mockery."

"Mockery?"

"Yes. I feel it."

"But didn't you find her very kind?"

"Oh, yes. I meant of self-mockery."

Braybrooke looked rather dubious.

"I think," continued Craven, perhaps a little obstinately, "that she
looks upon herself with irony, while Miss Van Tuyn looks upon others
with irony. Perhaps, though, that is rather a question of the different
outlooks of youth and age."

"H'm?"

Braybrooke pulled at his grey-and-brown beard.

"I scarcely see--I scarcely see, I confess, why age should be more
disposed to self-mockery than youth. Age, if properly met and
suitably faced--that is, with dignity and self-respect, such as Adela
Sellingworth undoubtedly shows--has no reason for self-mockery; whereas
youth, although charming and delightful might well laugh occasionally at
its own foolishness."

"Ah, but it never does!"

"I think for once I shall have a cocktail," said Braybrooke, signing to
an attendant in livery, who at that moment came from some hidden region
and looked around warily.

"You will join me, Craven? Let it be dry Martinis. Eh? Yes! Two dry
Martinis."

As the attendant went away Braybrooke added:

"My dear boy, if you will excuse me for saying so, are you not getting
the Foreign Office habit of being older than your years? I hope you will
not begin wearing horn spectacles while your sight is still unimpaired."

Craven laughed and felt suddenly younger.

The two dry Martinis were brought, and the talk grew a little more
lively. Braybrooke, who seldom took a cocktail, was good enough to allow
it to go to his head, and