"After meals, there is nothing to be got, save smoking," said the hostess; "you gentlemen have leave. Captain Lake, will you give me a cigarette?" Like many Russian ladies, Mademoiselle Aksakoff adored those fatal rolls of tobacco wrapped in coffee-coloured paper, and consumed a great quantity. Lady Richardson, unlike the average Englishwoman, smoked likewise--that is, she fiddled qualmishly with half a cigarette, because it looked smart to do what you shouldn't. The gentlemen also offered incense to the very modern goddess Nicotine, and shortly Lady Jim was the only person present not committed to this agreeable vice. "I am behind the times," she confessed; "but please don't look upon me as a prude on the prowl. I willingly permit other women to spoil their teeth and ruin their digestions." "What a nasty speech!" cried Lady Richardson, offended, especially as Leah knew it was an effort for her to sin in this way. "My dear, it is; but then, I feel nasty." "And look charming," whispered Askew. "I wonder how many times a day you repeat yourself," she replied impatiently. "As often as I recall your face. I can think then of only one adjective, charming, and one noun, angel." "What limitations! And the necessary verb?" "I love you." "First person singular, as usual, after the manner of the male egotist. Isn't this rather Lindley-Murray whispering?" If it was, they had no opportunity of continuing it, for Lady Richardson drew Leah's attention to the fact that she had lost a fortune in the Casino. "I depend upon you, dear, for my return fare." "Billy will pay," conjectured Lady Jim, calmly: "I quite expect he has broken the bank." "Not on Mr. Askew's system," cried Mamie; "you couldn't run an apple-stall on his lines." "You would suggest improvements," complained Askew, reproachfully. "Then you admit that they were." "If fitted properly into the puzzle, and at the proper time. But it's a mistake to swap horses when crossing a stream." "Huh!" said Miss Mulrady, in her best Californian style. "I guess the animals belonged to you. I lost no dollars"; and with a comfortable sense of her own 'cuteness, she accepted a cigarette from the attentive vicomte. This frothy chatter irritated a lady who was inwardly grappling with problems of the near future. Askew ventured on more spindrift, only to be snubbed into seeking the complaisant society of Mamie. This necessitated a game of general post, for Katinka slipped in rapid French and boulevard gossip with de Marville, while Lady Richardson drew Lake once more to her elderly feet. Remained the diplomatist, in splendid isolation, and his gaze wandered to Lady Jim, who stared straight before her. She was looking into the next world, where a reproachful ghost, something resembling Jim, was asking why he had been butchered to make a woman's holiday. And the living, half believing the terrible truth implied, gave shuffling answer to the dead: "Demetrius is to blame----"