efully. The walls were covered with a faded yellow paper,
torn in places, and the ceiling was smoked and fly-specked. The worn
thin carpet seemed to have been chosen for its resemblance to turtle
soup squirming with vermicelli. Over the pine mantel, painted yellow,
were the inevitable antlers, and on a marble-topped table were badly
executed water lilies under a glass dome. The furniture was horsehair,
and she wondered how she and the Austrian statesman were to preserve
their dignity on the slippery surface. Then she heard his voice in the
hall as he stopped to speak to Mr. Dinwiddie, and she glanced out
curiously.

She had not seen him since a year before the war, but he was little
changed; improved if anything, for there was more color in his formerly
pale face. He was as straight and as thin as ever, his fine head
erect, without haughtiness; his dark eyes under their heavy lids had
the same eagle glance. He was still, she concluded dispassionately,
the handsomest man she had ever seen, even for an Austrian, the
handsomest race on earth; he combined high intelligence with a classic
regularity of feature, grace, dignity; and when the firm lips relaxed
he had a delightful smile. If it had not been for his hair, very thick
white hair, he would have passed for little over forty. He wore loose
gray travelling clothes, and every detail was as quietly faultless as
ever.

She went hastily to the speckled mirror beneath the antlers and
surveyed herself anxiously. Her own travelling suit of dark green
tweed, with its white silk shirt, was as carelessly perfect as his own,
and the little green turban, with its shaded, drooping feather,
extremely becoming. No color set off her fairness like green, but she
turned away with a sigh. It was not the eyes of the past three days
that looked back at her.

And then she remembered that he had not seen her since the renaissance.
The moment was not without its excitements.

Their meeting was excessively formal.

"Frau Graefin."

"Excellenz."

She lifted her hand. He raised it to his lips.

And then he drew back and looked at her with penetrating but smiling
eyes.

"I had heard, of course," he said gallantly, "but I hardly was
prepared. May I say, Frau Graefin, that you look younger than when I
had the pleasure of meeting you first?"

"I assure you that I feel many years younger," she replied lightly.
"May I add that I am delighted to see that you are in the best o