'Don't be silly,' she answered. 'The first morning of Celia's sale is the most important event of the season. We have printed cards of invitation, and policemen outside the door to keep away intruders. This isn't any ordinary bargain hunting, you know. This is our one chance to provide ourselves with the elegancies of life at a reasonable cost.' 'For the moment, I gather,' he went on, falling into step with her, 'the affairs of the nation are in the background.' 'Naturally,' she assented. 'At what hour,' he inquired, 'will this function be over?' She glanced at him suspiciously. 'If I thought you were making fun----' 'Never entered into my head,' he assured her. 'Then you can give me some lunch at one o'clock,' she promised. 'That's exactly what I was hoping for. And, Miss de Freyne?' 'Well?' 'Would you mind very much if I brought an acquaintance?' She glanced at him in some surprise. 'Of course not,' she answered, 'only it must be a grill-room luncheon, please. I am dressed for a scrimmage.' 'At one o'clock at the Milan Grill,' he told her, raising his hat. He strolled slowly away southwards, crossed Pall Mall, and let himself in by a side entrance to the American Embassy. Here he spent a few minutes in the outer offices and passed on, a little later, into a more private apartment. An elderly man with a clean-shaven face, grey hair brushed back from his forehead, and tortoiseshell-rimmed spectacles, looked up from his roll-topped desk and waved his visitor to a seat. 'Hullo, Ambrose! Anything fresh?' Lavendale drew up a chair and grasped the hand which the other offered him. 'There is plenty going on, if one could get to understand it, Mr. Washburn,' he said. 'Berlin had me puzzled.' 'When did you get back?' 'Last night.' 'See anything of our friend?' 'He crossed with me.' 'Get acquainted with him?' 'Oh! I knew him before in Washington and in New York,' Lavendale replied. 'I took care to remind him of it, too. Yes, he was quite friendly. All the same, he was secretive. He didn't tell me the one thing I discovered of the greatest interest in connection with his trip, and that was that the Kaiser sent his private car three hundred miles and met him at the Western Headquarters. They spent the best part of the day together. Has he been in here?' Mr. Washburn shook his head. 'He neither reported before he left, nor has he been in since he got back. Kind of giving us the cold shoulder, isn't it?' 'He hasn't had much time yet,' Lavendale remarked thoughtfully, 'but it certainly doesn't look exactly like the behaviour of a loyal American.' Mr. Washburn turned in his place, removed his spectacles from his eyes and rubbed them carefully with his handkerchief. A slight weariness was apparent in his face and tone.