you're out
of a job this evening by any chance, and would come and cheer up a lone
bachelor, eh? No? You are? Well, that's luck for once! I say, where
shall we go? One of the places where they dance, I suppose? Yes, I twirl
the light fantastic once in a while myself. Got to keep up with the
times! Hold on, taxi! Here--I'll drive you home first, and wait while
you jump into your toggery. Lots of time." As he steered her toward the
carriage she noticed that he had a gouty limp, and pulled himself in
after her with difficulty.

"Mayn't I come as I am, Nelson, I don't feel like dancing. Let's go and
dine in one of those nice smoky little restaurants by the Place de la
Bourse."

He seemed surprised but relieved at the suggestion, and they rolled off
together. In a corner at Bauge's they found a quiet table, screened from
the other diners, and while Vanderlyn adjusted his eyeglasses to study
the carte Susy stole a long look at him. He was dressed with even more
than his usual formal trimness, and she detected, in an ultra-flat
wrist-watch and discreetly expensive waistcoat buttons, an attempt at
smartness altogether new. His face had undergone the same change: its
familiar look of worn optimism had been, as it were, done up to match
his clothes, as though a sort of moral cosmetic had made him pinker,
shinier and sprightlier without really rejuvenating him. A thin veil of
high spirits had merely been drawn over his face, as the shining strands
of hair were skilfully brushed over his baldness.

"Here! Carte des vins, waiter! What champagne, Susy?" He chose,
fastidiously, the best the cellar could produce, grumbling a little at
the bourgeois character of the dishes. "Capital food of its kind, no
doubt, but coarsish, don't you think? Well, I don't mind... it's rather
a jolly change from the Luxe cooking. A new sensation--I'm all for new
sensations, ain't you, my dear?" He re-filled their champagne glasses,
flung an arm sideways over his chair, and smiled at her with a foggy
benevolence.

As the champagne flowed his confidences flowed with it.

"Suppose you know what I'm here for--this divorce business? We wanted to
settle it quietly without a fuss, and of course Paris is the best place
for that sort of job. Live and let live; no questions asked. None
of your dirty newspapers. Great country, this. No hypocrisy... they
understand Life over here!"

Susy gazed and listened. She remembered that people had thought Nelson
would