a sigh, "I
forthwith banish. You ask a hard task of your cavaliers, though,
Mademoiselle."

She smiled and looked at him from under her eyelids.

"Not of you, I fancy, Mr. Laverick," she said. "I do not think that
you are one of those who make love to every woman because she is
good-looking or famous."

"To tell you the truth," Laverick admitted, "I find it hard to make
love to any one. I often feel the most profound admiration for
individual members of your sex, but to express one's self is
difficult--sometimes it is even embarrassing. For supper?"

"It is ordered," she declared. "You are my guest."

"Impossible!" Laverick asserted firmly. "I have been your guest
at the Opera. You at least owe me the honor of being mine for
supper."

She frowned a little. She was obviously unused to being contradicted.

"I sup with you, then, another night," she insisted. "No," she
continued, "If you are going to look like that, I take it back. I
sup with you to-night. This is an ill omen for our future
acquaintance. I have given in to you already--I, who give in to
no man. Give me some champagne, please."

Laverick took the bottle from the ice-pail by his side, but the
sommelier darted forward and served them.

"I drink to our better understanding of one another, Mr. Laverick,"
she said, raising her glass, "and, if you would like a double toast,
I drink also to the early gratification of the curiosity which is
consuming you."

"The curiosity?"

"Yes! You are wondering all the time why it is that I chose last
night to send and have you presented to me, why I came to your
office in the city to-day with the excuse of investing money with
you, why I invited you to the Opera to-night, why I commanded you
to supper here and am supping with you alone. Now confess the
truth; you are full of curiosity, is it not so?"

"Frankly, I am."

She smiled good-humoredly.

"I knew it quite well. You are not conceited. You do not believe,
as so many men would, that I have fallen in love with you. You
think that there must be some object, and you ask yourself all the
time, 'What is it?' in your heart, Mr. Laverick, I wonder whether
you have any idea."

Her voice had fallen almost to a whisper. She looked at him with a
suggestion of stealthiness from under her eyelids, a look which only
needed the slightest softening of her face to have made it something
almost irresistible.

"I can assure you," Laverick said firm