hey
cannot think that you were to blame?"

"In a sense, no," he replied. "Diplomatically, however, I am, from their
point of view, a heinous offender. I rather think I am going to be
shelved for six months."

"Just what one would expect from this horrible Government!" Mrs. Benedek
exclaimed indignantly.

"What do you know about the Government?" he asked. "Are you taking up
politics as well as the study of the higher auction?"

She sighed, and her eyes were fixed upon him very earnestly, as she
declared: "You do not understand me, my friend. You never did. I am
not altogether frivolous; I am not altogether an artist. I have my
serious moments."

"Is this going to be one of them?"

"Don't make fun of me, please," she begged, "You are like so many
Englishmen. Directly a woman tries to talk seriously, you will push her
back into her place. You like to treat her as something to frivol with
and make love to. Is it your _amour propre_ which is wounded, when you
feel sometimes forced to admit that she has as clear an insight into the
more important things of life as you yourself?"

"Do you talk like that with Baring?" he asked.

For several seconds she was silent. Her eyes had contracted a little. She
seemed to be seeking for some double meaning in his words.

"Captain Baring is an intelligent man," she said, "and he is a man, too,
who understands his own particular subject. Of course it is a pleasure to
talk to him about it."

"I thought navy men, as a rule," he remarked, "were not communicative."

"Do you call it communicative," she enquired, "to discuss the subject you
love best with your greatest friend? But let us not talk any more of
Captain Baring. It is in you just now that I am interested, you and your
future. You seem to think that your friends at the Foreign Office are not
going to find you another position--for some time, at any rate. You are
not one of those men who think of nothing but sport and amusing
themselves. What are you going to do during the next few months?"

"At present," he confessed thoughtfully, "I have only the vaguest ideas.
Perhaps you could help me."

"Perhaps I could," she admitted. "We will talk of that another time, if
you like."

It was obvious that she was speaking under a certain tension. The silence
which ensued was significant.

"Why not now?" he asked.

"It is too soon," she answered, "and you would not understand. I might
say things to you which would perhaps end ou