diplomats who seemed to have taken possession of her, and beckoned Ashe
to a seat beside her.

"So you're in? Was it a hard fight?"

"A hard fight? Oh no! One would have had to be a great fool not to get
in."

"They say you spoke very well. I suppose you promised them everything
they wanted--from the crown downward?"

"Yes--all the usual harmless things," said Ashe.

Madame d'Estrees laughed; then looked at him across the top of her fan.

"Well!--and what else?"

"You can't wait for your newspaper?" he said, smiling, after a moment's
pause.

She shrugged her shoulders good-humoredly.

"Oh! I <i>know</i>--of course I know. Is it as good as you expected?"

"As good as--" The young man opened his mouth in wonder. "What right
had I to expect anything?"

"How modest! All the same, they want you--and they're very glad to get
you. But you can't save them."

"That's not generally expected of Under-Secretaries, is it?"

"A good deal's expected of <i>you</i>. I talked to Lord Parham about you last
night."

William Ashe flushed a little.

"Did you? Very kind of you."

"Not at all. I didn't flatter you in the least. Nor did he. But they're
going to give you your chance!"

She bent forward and lightly patted the sleeve of his coat with the
fingers of a very delicate hand. In this sympathetic aspect, Madame
d'Estrees was no doubt exceedingly attractive. There were, of course,
many people who were not moved by it; to whom it was the conjuring of an
arch pretender. But these were generally of the female sex. Men, at any
rate, lent themselves to the illusion. Ashe, certainly, had always done
so. And to-night the spell still worked; though as her action drew his
particular attention to her face and expression, he was aware of slight
changes in her which recalled his mother's words of the afternoon. The
eyes were tired; at last he perceived in them some slight signs of years
and harass. Up till now her dominating charm had been a kind of timeless
softness and sensuousness, which breathed from her whole
personality--from her fair skin and hair, her large, smiling eyes. She
put, as it were, the question of age aside. It was difficult to think of
her as a child; it had been impossible to imagine her as an old woman.

"Well, this is all very surprising," said Ashe, "considering that four
months ago I did not matter an old shoe to anybody."

"That was your own fault. You took no trouble. And besides--there was
your po