cabinet, Mr. Clavering. I
keep them for Judge Trent."

"Mr. Cla----" He came out of his daze. "You know who I am then?"

"But certainly. I am not as reckless as all that."

Her accent was slight but indubious, yet impossible to place. It might
be that of a European who spoke many languages, or of an American with
a susceptible ear who had lived the greater part of her life abroad.
"I was driving one day with Judge Trent and saw you walking with Mr.
Dinwiddie."

"Trent--ah!"

He had his first full look into those wise unfathomable eyes. Standing
close to her, she seemed somewhat older than he had guessed her to be,
although her face was unlined. Probably it was her remarkable poise,
her air of power and security--and those eyes! What had not they
looked upon? She smiled and poured broth from a thermos bottle.

"You are forgetting your whiskey and soda," she reminded him.

He filled his glass, took a sandwich and sank into the depths of a
leather chair. She had seated herself on an upright throne-like chair
opposite. Her black velvet gown was like a vase supporting a subtly
moulded flower of dazzling fairness. She wore the three rows of pearls
that had excited almost as much speculation as her mysterious self. As
she drank her mild beverage she looked at him over the brim of her cup
and once more appeared to be on the verge of laughter.

"Will you tell me who you are?" asked Clavering bluntly. "This is
hardly fair, you know."

"Mr. Dinwiddie really managed to coax nothing from Judge Trent? He
called three times, I understand."

"Not a word."

"He had my orders," she said coolly. "I am obliged to pass some time
in New York and I have my reasons for remaining obscure."

"Then you should have avoided first-nights."

"But I understood that Society did not attend first-nights. So Judge
Trent informed me. I love the play. Judge Trent told me that
first-nights were very amusing and that I would be sure to be seen by
no one I had ever met in European Society."

"Probably not," he said drily and feeling decidedly nettled at her calm
assumption that nothing but the society of fashion counted. "But the
people who do attend them are a long sight more distinguished in the
only way that counts these days, and the women are often as well
dressed as any in the sacrosanct preserves."

"Oh, I noticed that," she said quickly. "Charming intelligent faces, a
great variety of types, and many--but many--