"I think you'll have to be forgiven--in remembrance of the day when you
took up a passenger in Hyde Park!"--smiling.

Soon afterwards people began to take their departure, Nan and Penelope
alone making no move to go, since Kitty had offered to send them home
in her car "at any old time." Mallory paused as he was making his
farewells to the two girls.

"And am I permitted--may I have the privilege of calling?" he asked
with one of his odd lapses into a quaintly elaborate manner that was
wholly un-English.

"Yes, do. We shall be delighted."

"My thanks." And with a slight bow he left them.

Later on, when everyone else had gone, the Seymours, together with
Penelope and Nan, drew round the fire for a final few minutes' yarn.

"Well, how do you like Kitty's latest lion?" asked Barry, lighting a
cigarette.

"I think he's a dear," declared Penelope warmly. "I liked him
immensely--what I saw of him."

"He's such an extraordinary faculty for reading people," chimed in
Kitty, puffing luxuriously at a tiny gold-tipped cigarette.

"Part of a writer's stock in trade, of course," replied Barry. "But
he's a clever chap."