Marbridge, accompanied by a woman, was leaving the eastern dining-room. They passed so near to Matthias that by stretching forth his foot he could have touched the woman's skirt. But she did not see him; her face was averted as she looked up, faintly smiling, to the face of her companion. Marbridge, on his part, was attending her with that slightly exaggerated attitude of solicitude and devotion which was peculiarly his with all women. If he saw Matthias he made no sign. His dark and boyish eyes ogled his companion; his tone was pitched low to a key of intimacy; he rolled a trifle in his walk, with the insuppressible swagger of the amateur of gallantry. They passed on and out of the hotel; and Matthias saw the carriage-porter, at a sign from Marbridge, whistle in a taxicab. He turned away in disgust. A moment or so later he looked up to find Marbridge standing over him and grinning impudently as he offered a hand. "Why, _how_ do you do, Matthias, my boy?" His voice, by no means subdued, echoed through the lobby and attracted curious glances. Matthias, ignoring the hand, lifted one of his own in a gesture deprecatory. "Softly!" he begged. "Somebody might hear you." Unabashed, Marbridge dropped into the chair beside him. "How's that? Why shouldn't they?" "They might make the mistake of inferring that I liked you," returned Matthias. Marbridge, on the point of settling back, sat up with a start. A dull colour flushed his plump, dark cheeks. For an instant his hands twitched nervously and his full lips tightened on a retort which he presumably deemed inadvisable; for mastering his impulse, he sank back again, and put a period to the display with a brief but not uneasy chuckle. "You're all there with the acidulated repartee," he observed appreciatively. "Some class to your work, my boy!" To which, Matthias making no comment, he added with at least some effort toward an appearance of sincerity: "Sorry you feel that way about me." "Unfortunately, I do." "Because I wouldn't act on your suggestion about that time-table, eh?" "Because of the circumstances which moved me to drop that hint." A brief silence prefaced Marbridge's next remark: "But damn it! I couldn't. It would've made talk if I'd pulled out when you wanted me to." "There would have been no occasion for any talk whatever if you'd known how to comport yourself as the guest of decent people." And still Marbridge husbanded his resentment. "Oh well!" he said, aggrieved--"women!" Matthias threw away his cigarette and prepared to rise. "Hold on a bit," Marbridge checked him. "I want to ask a favour of you.... Of course, you're right; I am a bad actor, and all that. I'm sorry I forgot myself at Tanglewood--word of honour, I am!" "Well?" Matthias suggested with an unmoved face. "Look here...." Marbridge sat up eagerly. "I think you're a mighty good sort--" "Thanks!" "You didn't blow about that business down there--" "I couldn't very well--could I?--with a woman involved!"