ly concern me."

"Of course," Norgate resumed, as he watched the champagne poured into his
glass, "one is too much inclined to form one's conclusions about a nation
from the types one meets travelling, and you know what the Germans have
done for Monte Carlo and the Riviera--even, to a lesser extent, for Paris
and Rome. Wherever they have been, for the last few years, they seem to
have left the trail of the _nouveaux riches_. It is not only their
clothes but their manners and bearing which affront."

The woman leaned her head for a moment against the tips of her slim and
beautifully cared for fingers. She looked steadfastly across the table at
her vis-a-vis.

"Now that you are here," she said softly, "you must forget those things.
You are a diplomatist, and it is for you, is it not, outwardly, at any
rate, to see only the good of the country in which your work lies."

Norgate flushed very slightly. His companion's words had savoured almost
of a reproof.

"You are quite right," he admitted. "I have been here for a month,
though, and you are the first person to whom I have spoken like this. And
you yourself," he pointed out, "encouraged me, did you not, when you
insisted upon your Austro-English nationality?"

"You must not take me too seriously," she begged, smiling. "I spoke
foolishly, perhaps, but only for your good. You see, Mr. Francis Norgate,
I am just a little interested in you and your career."

"And I, dear Baroness," he replied, smiling across at her, "am more than
a little interested in--you."

She unfurled her fan.

"I believe," she sighed, "that you are going to flirt with me."

"I should enter into an unequal contest," Norgate asserted. "My methods
would seem too clumsy, because I should be too much in earnest."

"Whatever the truth may be about your methods," she declared, "I rather
like them, or else I should not be risking my reputation in this still
prudish city by dining with you alone and without a chaperon. Tell me a
little about yourself. We have met three times, is it not--once at the
Embassy, once at the Palace, and once when you paid me that call. How old
are you? Tell me about your people in England, and where else you have
served besides Paris?"

"I am thirty years old," he replied. "I started at Bukarest. From there
I went to Rome. Then I was second attache at Paris, and finally, as you
see, here."

"And your people--they are English, of course?"

"Naturally," he answered. "My