"Nothing is the matter," shortly replied madame, who seemed more put out than the occasion called for: she thought me rude, I suppose. "Lady Jenkins is not ready; that is all. She may be half-an-hour yet." "Half-an-hour! I won't wait longer, then," said Captain Collinson, catching up his crush hat. "I do trust she has not taken another chill. Au revoir, madame." With a nod to me, he made his exit by the way I had entered. The same peculiarity struck me now that I had observed before: whenever I went into a place, be it Jenkins House or Rose Villa, the gallant captain immediately quitted it. "Do I frighten Captain Collinson away?" I said to madame on the spur of the moment. "_You_ frighten him! Why should you?" "I don't know why. If he happens to be here when I come in, he gets up and goes away. Did you never notice it? It is the same at Mrs. Knox's. It was the same once at Mrs. Hampshire's." Madame laughed. "Perhaps he is shy," said she, jestingly. "A man who has travelled to India and back must have rubbed his shyness off, one would think. I wish I knew where I had met him before!--if I have met him. Every now and again his face seems to strike on a chord of my memory." "It is a handsome face," remarked madame. "Pretty well. As much as can be seen of it. He has hair enough for a Russian bear or a wild Indian." "Have wild Indians a superabundance of hair?" asked she gravely. I laughed. "Seriously speaking, though, Madame St. Vincent, I think I must have met him somewhere." "Seriously speaking, I don't think that can be," she answered; and her jesting tone had become serious. "I believe he has passed nearly all his life in India." "Just as you have passed yours in the South of France. And yet there is something in your face also familiar to me." "I should say you must be just a little fanciful on the subject of likenesses. Some people are." "I do not think so. If I am I did not know it. I----" The inner door opened and Lady Jenkins appeared, becloaked and beshawled, with a great green hood over her head, and leaning on Lettice Lane. Madame got up and threw a mantle on her own shoulders. "Dear Lady Jenkins, I was just coming to see for you. Captain Collinson called in to give you his arm, but he did not wait. And here's Mr. Johnny Ludlow, sent in by Mrs. Knox to ask whether we are all dead." "Ay," said Lady Jenkins, nodding to me as she sat down on the sofa: "but I should like a cup of tea before we start." "A cup of tea?" "Ay; I'm thirsty. Let me have it, Patty." She spoke the last words in an imploring tone, as if Patty were her mistress. Madame threw off her mantle again, untied the green hood of her lady, and sent Lettice to make some tea. "You had better go back and tell Mrs. Knox we are coming, though I'm sure I don't know when it will be," she said aside to me.