he rug.

"A man at once wealthy and generous is an improbable, but not an
impossible, being," he said.

Rohscheimer stared, dully. There were times when he suspected Haredale
of being studiously rude to him. He preserved a gloomy silence
throughout the rest of the period occupied by his toilet, and in silence
descended to the ballroom.

The throng was considerable, and the warmth oppressive at what time Mrs.
Rohscheimer's ball was in full swing. Scarcely anyone was dancing, but
the walls were well lined, and the crush about the doors suggestive of a
cup tie.

"Who's that tall chap with the white hair?" inquired Rohscheimer from
the palmy corner to which Haredale discreetly had conveyed him.

"That is the Comte de Noeue," replied his informant; "a distinguished
member of the French diplomatic corps."

"We're getting on!" chuckled the millionaire. "He's a good man to have,
isn't he Haredale?"

"Highly respectable!" said the latter dryly.

"We don't seem to get the dooks, and so on?"

"The older nobility is highly conservative!" explained Haredale
evasively. "But Mrs. Rohscheimer is a recognised leader of the smart
set."

Rohscheimer swayed his massive head in bear-like discontent.

"I don't get the hang of this smart set business," he complained.
"Aren't the dooks and earls and so on in the smart set?"

"Not strictly so!" answered Haredale, helping himself to
brandy-and-soda.

This social conundrum was too much for the millionaire, and he lapsed
into heavy silence, to be presently broken with the remark:

"All the Johnnies holding the wall up are alike, Haredale! It's funny I
don't know any of 'em! You see them in the sixpenny monthlies, with the
girl they're going to marry in the opposite column. Give me their names,
will you--starting with the one this end?"

Haredale, intending, good-humouredly, to comply, glanced around the
spacious room--only to realise that he, too, was unacquainted with the
possibly distinguished company of muralites.

"I rather fancy," he said, "a lot of the people you mean are
Discoveries--of Mrs. Rohscheimer's, you know--writers and painters and
so forth."

"No, no!" complained the host. "I know all that lot--and they all know
me! I mean the nice-looking fellows round the wall! I haven't been
introduced, Haredale. They've come in since this waltz started."

Haredale looked again, and his slightly bored expression gave place to
one of curiosity.

CHAPTER II

"THI