now. The Services are all right
when there's a bit of a scrap going sometimes, but there's a nasty sort
of feeling of dry rot about them, when year after year all your
preparations end in the smoke of a sham fight. Now I am on this beastly
land job--but there, I mustn't bother you with my grumblings."

"I am interested," Norgate assured him. "Did you say you were considering
something new?"

Baring nodded.

"Plans of a new submarine," he confided. "There's no harm in telling you
as much as that."

Mrs. Benedek, who was dummy for the moment, strolled over to them.

"I am not sure," she murmured, "whether I like the expression you have
brought back from Germany with you, Mr. Norgate."

Norgate smiled. "Have I really acquired the correct diplomatic air?" he
asked. "I can assure you that it is an accident--or perhaps I am
imitative."

"You have acquired," she complained, "an air of unnatural reserve. You
seem as though you had found some problem in life so weighty that you
could not lose sight of it even for a moment. Ah!"

The glass-topped door had been flung wide open with an unusual flourish.
A barely perceptible start escaped Norgate. It was indeed an unexpected
appearance, this! Dressed with a perfect regard to the latest London
fashion, with his hair smoothly brushed and a pearl pin in his black
satin tie, Herr Selingman stood upon the threshold, beaming upon them.

CHAPTER VIII

Selingman had the air of a man who returns after a long absence to some
familiar spot where he expects to find friends and where his welcome is
assured. Mrs. Paston Benedek slipped from her place upon the cushioned
fender and held out both her hands.

"Ah, it is really you!" she exclaimed. "Welcome, dear friend! For days I
have wondered what it was in this place which one missed all the time.
Now I know."

Selingman took the little outstretched hands and raised them to his lips.

"Dear lady," he assured her, "you repay me in one moment for all the
weariness of my exile."

She turned towards her companion.

"Captain Baring," she begged, "please ring the bell. Mr. Selingman and I
always drink a toast together the moment he first arrives to pay us one
of his too rare visits. Thank you! You know Captain Baring, don't you,
Mr. Selingman? This is another friend of mine whom I think that you have
not met--Mr. Francis Norgate, Mr. Selingman. Mr. Norgate has just arrived
from Berlin, too."

For a single moment the newcomer