“Oh, I think he’s a well-meaning chap--most obliging.” “I should say so--to anybody he crawls before. And who are these Westerners he’s sending you to?” “The Ballantynes. I think Mr. Ballantyne’s a Senator, is he not?” Wallingford laughed again. “That’s one on me,” he said. “Yes, they’re from the West. But for everything that isn’t American they lay it over anybody you’ve seen in New York. Ballantyne! I sha’n’t say any more. It’s of no use to tell you you’re going round and round in a circle that’s in America but not really of it.” “Do you know the Ballantynes?” “I’ve met Mrs. Ballantyne--and the daughter that’s married to a Spaniard--the Duke of Almansa. They were at Monte Carlo three years ago when I was there. A handsome woman--amusing, too. She spent most of her time in the gambling rooms--used to come in always dressed in something new and loud--and what tremendous hats she did wear! She’d throw on the table a big gold purse blazing with diamonds. Then she’d seat herself and open the purse, and it would be stuffed with thousand-franc notes. She’d plunge like a Russian. Every once in a while she’d go out on the balcony and walk up and down smoking a cigarette. She forbade her husband the Casino unless she was with him; even then he wasn’t allowed to stake a single louis. He’d slip away and play in one of those more private rooms upstairs.” Frothingham smiled reminiscently. “You know, the play’s higher there,” continued Wallingford. “But the crowd of spectators was too small and indifferent for Her Grace of Almansa. When she found out what he was up to she made a scene right before everybody--‘How dare you squander _my_ money?’ she said, and she led him off like a spaniel on its way to a whipping.” “Charming person,” said Frothingham. “Must have been amusing.” “Indeed she was. They’d talk of her all day without growing tired--and always a new freak. You’ll be amused by her.” “Ah--she’s here?” “Yes--left the Duke two years ago--paid him off and came home to her father. She’s quite quiet now, they say--educating her children.” Frothingham’s three days at the British Embassy were to him days upon an oasis in the desert. It was literally as well as legally part of the British domain--Britain indeed, as soon as the outside door were passed. The servants at most of the houses at which he had been entertained were direct and recent importations from England, yet they had already lost an essential something--even his faithful Hutt was not the docile, humble creature he had been. But here in the Embassy the servants, like the attachés, like the Ambassador’s family, like the Ambassador himself, were as English in look, in manner, in thought, as if they had never been off the island. The very furniture and the arrangement of it, the way the beds were made and the towels were hung in the bathrooms, represented the English people as thoroughly as did the Ambassador.