CHAPTER II

THE CLAIBORNES, OF WASHINGTON

--the Englishman who is not an Englishman and therefore doubly
incomprehensible.--_The Naulahka_.


The girl with the white-plumed hat started and flushed slightly, and her
brother glanced over his shoulder toward the restaurant door to see what
had attracted her attention.

"'Tis he, the unknown, Dick."

"I must say I like his persistence!" exclaimed the young fellow, turning
again to the table. "In America I should call him out and punch his head,
but over here--"

"Over here you have better manners," replied the girl, laughing. "But why
trouble yourself? He doesn't even look at us. We are of no importance to
him whatever. We probably speak a different language."

"But he travels by the same trains; he stops at the same inns; he sits
near us at the theater--he even affects the same pictures in the same
galleries! It's growing a trifle monotonous; it's really insufferable. I
think I shall have to try my stick on him."

"You flatter yourself, Richard," mocked the girl. "He's fully your height
and a trifle broader across the shoulders. The lines about his mouth are