that he's an Irishman; or Lucia Carlotti, who hardly ever leaves London
because her dinners cost her nothing. But I reserve the right of
personal resentment.'


IV.

They were interrupted by a waiter, who removed the soup-plates with
studied dexterity, and substituted _Tronçon de turbotin Duglère_;
_pommes vapeur_, the dish which had delivered the fatal blow against
the Cabinet Minister's digestive armour.

'Perhaps I am too personal,' resumed Selwyn after the completion of
this task, 'but last night one of the impressions I took away with me
was your critical attitude towards your surroundings. Then this
morning you were so completely'----

'Charming?'

'----bewitching,' he said, smiling, 'that I thought myself an idiot for
the previous night's opinion. But, then, this evening'----

'Mr. Selwyn, you are not going to tell me I'm disappointing, and we
just finished with the soup?'

More than her words, the forced rapidity with which she spoke nettled
him. With bad taste perhaps, but still with well-meant sincerity, he
was trying to elucidate the personality which had gripped him; while
she, though seemingly having no objection to serving as a study for
analysis, was constantly thrusting her deflecting sentences in his