when you got under their protective armor they were an
honorable and a loyal lot. Meanwhile it paid to be as rude as themselves.

"I am delighted that Madame Zattiany has decided to come out of her shell
at last," said Judge Trent, shaking vigorously. "I've been urging it for
some time. But she has had a long and harrowing experience, and seemed
to want only to rest. I think the stir she made at your first-nights,
Clavering, had something to do with it. There was a time, you know, when
she never appeared without making a sensation--like poor Mary before
her--but young as she is all that seems almost too remote to recall. Of
course if she had been able to live in London or Paris after the war it
would have been different, but she was stuck in Buda Pesth and
Vienna--ah!"

Madame Zattiany had entered the room. She wore pale green chiffon with
floating sleeves that left her arms bare. In the subdued light she
looked like a girl playing at Undine.

Clavering heard Dinwiddie give a sharp hiss. "Gad! More like Mary than
ever. Nile-green was her favorite color."

She greeted the Judge and Clavering with her slight flickering smile and
then turned to the other two men.

"This must be Mr. Osborne, as Judge Trent pointed out Mr. Dinwiddie to me
one day on Fifth Avenue. It was kind of you both to come in this
informal manner. I appreciate it very much."

Her manner was a little like that of a princess giving audience,
Clavering reflected, a manner enhanced by her slight accent and profound
repose, the negligent lifting of her hand to be kissed; and as she stood
graciously accepting their expressions of unhoped for felicity she looked
less American, more European, than ever. But Clavering wondered for the
first time if that perfect repose were merely the expression of a
profound indifference, almost apathy . . . but no, she was too young for
that, however the war may have seared her; and she was smiling
spontaneously, there was a genuine note of pleasure in her voice as she
turned to him.

"It was more than kind of you to watch my house until the policeman
came," she said on a lower key. "I was really alarmed when I remembered
that broken window and all those dreadful stories in the newspapers. But
you kept watch beneath my windows like a _preux chevalier_ and I felt
safe."

"I felt rather a fool if the truth be told." Her eyes had a curious
exploring look and Clavering felt unaccountably irritated, in spi