beg your pardon,--I am afraid I was unintelligibly idiomatic. To divide,
I should say, you consuming one-half, I the other. Am I clear, sir?"

For a moment the Baron was a little taken aback, and then recollecting
that the dining habits of the English were still new to him, he concluded
that the suggestion was probably a customary act of courtesy. He had
already come to the conclusion that the gentleman must be a person of
rank, and he replied affably, "Yah--zat is, vid pleasure. Zanks, very."

"The pleasure is mine," said the stranger--"and half the bottle," he added,
smiling.

The Baron, whose perception of humour had been abnormally increased by
this time, laughed hilariously at the infection of his new acquaintance's
smile.

"Goot, goot!" he cried. "Ach, yah, zo."

"Am I right, sir, in supposing that, despite the perfection of your
English accent, I cannot be fortunate enough to claim you as a
countryman?" asked the stranger.

The Baron's resolutions of reticence had vanished altogether before such
unexpected and (he could not but think) un-English friendliness. He
unburdened his heart with a rush.

"You have ze right. I am Deutsch. I have gom to England zis day for to
lairn and to amuse myself. But mein, vat you call?--introdogtions zey are
not inside, zat is zey are from off. Not von, all, every single gone to ze
gontry or to abroad. I am alone, I eat my dinner in zolitude, I am pleased
to meet you, sare."

A cork popped and the champagne frothed into the stranger's glass. Raising
it to his lips, he said, "Prosit!"

"Prosit!" responded the Baron, enthusiastically. "You know ze Deutsch,
sare?"

"I am safer in English, I confess."

"Ach, das ist goot, I vant for to practeese. Ve vill talk English."

"With all my heart," said the stranger. "I, too, am alone, and I hold
myself more than fortunate in making your acquaintance. It's a devilish
dull world when one can't share a bottle--or a brace of them, for the
matter of that."

"You know London?" asked the Baron.

"I used to, and I daresay my memory will revive."

"I know it not, pairhaps you can inform. I haf gom, as I say, to-day."

"With pleasure," said the stranger, readily. "In fact, if you are ever
disengaged I may possibly be able to act as showman."

"Showman!" roared the Baron, thinking he had discovered a jest. "Ha, ha,
ha! Goot, zehr goot!"

The other looked a trifle astonished for an instant, and then as he sipped
his champagne an ex