Square. But these were not the sounds which for a moment had changed her
face.

"I myself," she murmured, "am an example!"

A woman who had risen to go sat down again.

"Do go on, Duchess!" she exclaimed. "Anything in the nature of a personal
confession is so fascinating, and you know you are such an enigma to all
of us."

"Am I?" she answered, smiling. "Then I am likely to remain so."

"A perfectly obvious person like myself," the woman remarked, "is always
fascinated by the unusual. But if you are really not going to give
yourself away, Duchess, I am afraid I must move on. One hates to leave
your beautifully cool rooms. Shall I see you to-night, I wonder, at
Esholt House?"

"Perhaps!"

There were still many people in the room. Some fresh arrivals occupied
his hostess's attention, and Borrowdean, with a resigned shrug of the
shoulders, prepared to depart. He had come, hoping for an opportunity to
be alone for a few minutes with the Duchess, and himself a skilful
tactician in such small matters, he could not but admire the way she had
kept him at arm's length. And then the opportunity for a master stroke
came. A servant sought him out with a card. A man of method, he seldom
left his rooms without instructions as to where he was to be found.