ings as if to amuse him alone, and hang everyone else!--but just
looking at him, with gorgeous, starry eyes; asking a question now and
then, and listening with all her soul. I'm not sure it isn't an equally
effective way, especially when done in a diamond tiara by a countess
under twenty-five. I should quite have enjoyed watching it if Sir Lionel
had been a stranger, but knowing him somehow made me feel 'pon honour
not to look, and rather restless. I do believe that, compared with some
of these men, who've been at the other end of the world for years doing
important political things, Samson with his hair all cropped off was
_adamant_ to Lovely Woman!

Naturally, I had to have something to look at, and I couldn't look at
Lord Knaresbrook because the shape of his nose worried me; and anyhow he
wanted to talk to Emily about people they both knew. Such exciting bits
as this floated to my ears: "Ah, yes, _he_ was the great-grandson of
Lord This. She married the Duke of That's second cousin." So I looked a
good deal at Captain Starlin, and he looked at me and not at very much
else, which was quite easy, the most important lady being his own
sister, who took the place of hostess; so Mrs. Norton was on his right
and I on his left. As he was our host, and evidently wanted to flirt a
little, I thought it my duty to gratify his wish, and played up to him.
That was quite right, wasn't it? I'm sure you'll say yes, as you are a
Parisienne, and have brought me up to do unto others as I would be done
by. But several times I happened to catch Sir Lionel's eyes, and they
had a gloomy glint in them; not angry, but as if he'd discovered a screw
loose in me. I felt as uncomfortable as you do with a smudge on your
nose, which you see in shop-window mirrors when you've forgotten your
handkerchief; but it was too late to change my behaviour suddenly, so I
went on as I had begun.

We mere females didn't leave the men at the table, perhaps because there
wasn't any place where it would have been proper for us to wander
unmanned. We sat for hours, and Lady Knaresbrook smoked, and wanted us
to smoke, though of course she must have known that no woman with her
hair done like Emily's _would_. Emily looked shocked, but just pressed
in her lips, and didn't disapprove out aloud, as she might if Lady
Knaresbrook had been plain "Mrs." But afterward she told me she was now
ready to believe "all they say" about Diana Knaresbrook. Just because
she smoked! M