look battered, and the velvet hat shoved on
cheekily, like a man's wideawake. Her eyes and her teeth acclaimed him
in a kindred smile, for which he felt the warmer.

"Hallo, dear old thing!" she greeted him. "I thought you were lost."

He held her hand, smiling. "This is fine!" he said. "Where shall we
go?"

"Romano's."

"Romano's let it be. I've a cab here, waiting." He handed her in,
jumped in after her, and slammed the door, with a feeling that for an
hour at least he had left his troubles outside.

"How are you?" he asked. "What have you been doing since I saw you
last? And didn't you ever expect to see me again?"

Her eyes, in the dimness, looked very deep.

"I knew I should," she answered murmurously.

The inimitable atmosphere of Romano's loosened his tongue. After she
had ordered supper, with every whit of the appetite and extravagance
which he remembered as her chief characteristic, next to her beauty,
and after each had been stimulated by a cocktail, he was conscious
that he wanted to confide in her, not so much because she was Roselle,
but because she was a woman, would look soft and listen prettily. He
wanted stroking gently, patting on the back, and reassuring about
himself.

The slight moodiness of his expression set her suggesting confidences.
"You've got a pretty bad hump," she said caressingly. "What is it? Has
the car slumped? Won't they have it? Or is it indigestion? You're not
what you were when--"

She gave a quick sigh and smile, very inviting.

"When we were touring about Canada and the States together," he
finished. "Well, you see; when a man has come back to all he left
behind him--"

"Did you leave much behind you?"

"Why do you ask?"

"You never told _me_ anything," she pouted. "But I'm not
_asking_. I've no curiosity. The knots men tie themselves into--"

"You can laugh."

"You make me. Aren't men silly? Tell me about--to whom you came back."

"What does it matter?"

"It doesn't. _I_ don't care." She drummed her fingers on the
table. "All men are like cats, home by day, and tiles by night. But if
you'd told me you were likely to get scolded for saying how d'you do
to me, I'd have been more careful of you."

Her smile derided him. "Has someone scolded you?" she asked.

Consomme was set before them and she began to drink it with appetite,
not repeating her question till it was finished.

"Well?" she said then, tilting her head inquiringly to one side.

"The fact i