Highland estate!" There was a warning rustle at Hawke's left, as
the fair stranger prepared for her flitting.

"I was very intimate with Hugh Fraser in my griffin days. But I
thought he had retired and gone back home. He is enormously rich,
and an old bachelor! I know him very well; he was a good friend of
mine in the old days, too!"

Anstruther leaned toward Hawke, as he signed to the waiter to refill
his hearer's glass. "Well, I can surprise even you! He has turned
up with a beautiful daughter--at Delhi--just about the prettiest
girl I ever--"

"Je demande mills pardons, Madame!" politely cried Major Hawke, as
his fair neighbor's wineglass went shivering down in a crystalline
wreck.

"Pas de quoi, Monsieur," suavely replied the woman whom till now he
had hardly noticed. A moment later the slight damage was repaired,
and then Captain the Honorable Anson Anstruther had his little
innings.

With courtly hospitality he offered the creamy champagne as a
remplacement for the lost vin du pays.

A charming smile rewarded the gallant youth, while Major Hawke
turned with interest to the renewal of the interrupted narrative.
He had caught a glance of burning intensity from the dark brown
eyes of the lady a la Houbigant, which set every nerve in his body
tingling. It was a challenge to a companionship, and, as he led