mpetent to advise you, when you are bent on plunging into speculations
of this description! The Barbey-Nanteuil people can give you reliable
information; I myself, you know..."

"But since it is really of no importance!" interrupted Madame de Vibray,
who had no wish to listen to the remonstrances of her too prudent
friend: "What does it matter? It is my only diversion now!... I love
gambling--the emotions it arouses in one, the perpetual hopes and fears
it excites!"

Thomery was about to reply, to argue, to remonstrate further, but the
Baroness had caught him glancing at the clock hanging beside the
fireplace:

"I am making you dine late," she said in a tone of apology. Then, with a
touch of malice, and looking up at Thomery from under her eyes, to see
how he took it:

"You are to be rewarded for having to wait!... I have invited Princess
Sonia Danidoff to dine with you!"

Thomery started. He frowned. He again seated himself beside the
Baroness:

"You have invited her?..."

"Yes ... and why not?... I believe this pretty woman is one of your
special friends... that you consider her the most charming of all your
friends now!..."

Thomery did not take up the challenge: he simply said:

"I had an idea that the Princess was not much to your taste!"

The eyes of Madame de Vibray flashed a sad, strange look on her old
friend, as she said gently:

"One can accustom oneself to anything and everything, my dear
friend.... Besides, I quite recognise that the Princess deserves
the reputation she enjoys of being wonderfully beautiful and also
intellectual...."

Thomery did not reply to this: he looked puzzled, annoyed....

The Baroness continued:

"They even say that handsome bachelor, Monsieur Thomery, is not
indifferent to her fascinations!... That, for the first time in his
life, he is ready to link ..."

"Oh, as for that!..." Thomery was protesting, when the door opened, and
the Princess Sonia Danidoff rustled into the room, a superbly--a
dazzlingly beautiful vision, all audacity and charm.

"Accept all my apologies, dear Baroness," she cried, "for arriving so
late; but the streets are so crowded!"

"... And I live such a long way out!" added Madame de Vibray.

"You live in a charming part," amended the Princess. Then, catching
sight of Thomery:

"Why, you!" she cried. And, with a gracious and dignified gesture, the
Princess extended her hand, which the wealthy sugar refiner hastened to
kiss.

At this