feel all the time you are playing a game with really experienced
adversaries, and it makes it interesting. They are full of resource,
and you know underneath you could never break their hearts. I am not
sure if they have any in their own country, but if so they turn into the
most wonderful and exquisite bits of mechanism when they come to
Europe."

"And you admire that."

"Certainly--hearts are a great bore."

"You were always a cynic, Hector; that is perhaps what makes you so
attractive."

"Am I attractive?"

"I can't judge," said Mrs. Ellerwood, nettled for a moment. "I have
known you too long, but I hear other women saying so."

"That is comforting, at all events," said Lord Bracondale. "I always
have adored women."

"No, you never have, that is just it. You have let them adore you, and
utterly spoil you; so now sometimes, Hector, you are insupportable."

"You just said I was attractive."

"I shall not argue further with you," said Mrs. Ellerwood, pettishly.

"And I think we ought to be saying good-night, Hector," interrupted the