seemed when they were riding to have caught something of the alchemy of
the skies, were steady and lighter in shade. Again he noticed the
suggestion of discontent about the mouth, and the upper lip looked thin
and lacking in colour.

'It is your turn to-night to be pensive,' she said.

'I was thinking,' he answered, 'that it is hardly twenty-four hours
since we met, and yet I have as many impressions of you as an ordinary
woman would give in six months. For instance, last night when you
entered the room'----

'But, Mr. Selwyn, any girl knows enough to arrive late when there is no
woman within twenty years of her age in the room. The effect is
certain.'

There was no humour in her voice, but just a tone of weary, world-wise
knowledge. A look of displeasure clouded his face.

'Surely,' he said, 'with your qualities and appearance, you don't need
such an elaborate technique.'

'In a world where there is so little that is genuine, why should I
debar myself from the pleasure of being a humbug?'

'Come, come,' he said, smiling, 'you are not going to join the ranks of
England's detractors?'

She shrugged her shoulders. 'I'm certainly not going to become a
professional critic like Stackton Dunckley, who hasn't even the excuse