"In that case I can never have known you," she answered, calmly. "I
never know any one except by name. I suppose you are an Englishman?"

"Yes," he said, eagerly; "I am in the 5th----"

"Ah, I thought so," she interrupted, placidly. "Englishmen in the 5th,
and some other regiments, are apt to have but the one idea----"

"And that is?"

"And that is a bad one."

He looked at her for a moment, and then, hat in hand, he made her a low
bow, and left her without another word.

"I think he felt ill, and went to have some refreshment," she added,
when she told me.

From what happened afterwards I am sure that at the time she had no
idea of the real significance of the position in which she found
herself placed on this occasion. But, as a rule, if she did or said the
wrong thing, she became painfully conscious of the fact immediately
afterwards--indeed, it was generally _afterwards_ that she grasped
the full meaning of most things. She was ready with repartee without
being in the least quick of understanding; she had to think things
over, and even then she was not sure to do the right thing next time.

"Mr. Graves is ten years younger than his wife," she told me once, "and
only fancy what I said one day. It was in his studio, and she was