. "I didn't catch."

"It's Monsieur Defourcambault," said Miss Wheeler in a low voice of
sincere admiration. "He's from the Embassy. A most interesting man. Been
everywhere. Seen everything. Read everything. Done everything."

George could not but be struck by the ingenuous earnestness of her tone,
so different from the perfunctory accents in which she had catalogued
her objects of art.

The dining-room, the dinner, and the service of the dinner were equally
superb. The broad table seemed small in the midst of the great
mysterious chamber, of which the illumination was confined by shades to
the centre. The glance wandering round the obscurity of the walls could
rest on nothing that was not obviously in good taste and very costly.
The three men-servants, moving soundless as phantoms, brought burdens
from a hidden country behind a gigantic screen, and at intervals in the
twilight near the screen could be detected the transient gleam of the
white apron of the mulatto, whose sex clashed delicately and piquantly
with the grave, priest-like performances of the male menials. The table
was of mahogany covered with a sheet of plate-glass. A large gold
epergne glittered in the middle. Suitably dispersed about the rim of the
board were six rectangular islands of pale lace, and on each island lay
a complete set of the innumerable instruments and condiments necessary
to the proper consumption of the meal. Thus, every diner dined
independently, cut off from his fellows, but able to communicate with
them across expanses of plate-glass over mahogany. George was confused
by the multiplicity of metal tools and crystal receptacles--he alone had
four wine-glasses--but in the handling of the tools he was saved from
shame by remembering the maxim--a masterpiece of terse clarity worthy of
a class which has given its best brains to the perfecting of the
formalities preliminary to deglutition: "Take always from the outside."

The man from the French Embassy sat on the right of the hostess, and
George on her left. George had Lois Ingram on his left. Laurencine was
opposite her sister. Everard Lucas, by command of the hostess, had taken
the foot of the table and was a sort of 'Mr. Vice.' The six people were
soon divided into two equal groups, one silent and the other talkative,
the talkative three being M. Defourcambault, Laurencine and Lucas. The
diplomatist, though he could speak diplomatic English, persisted in
speaking French. Laurencine s