As Pelham and Elizabeth sat at the foot of the stairs, a cabinet officer passed them slowly, as they sat under a bower of great palms, with the throbbing music far enough away not to interrupt their talk; and Elizabeth spoke to the cabinet officer. He was an elderly man from the West, manly and even gentlemanly, though not polished. Pelham noticed with what ease Elizabeth spoke to this type of man, the smiling, tactful answers she gave to his pleasant but rather blunt questions. She introduced Pelham promptly to him, accompanying the introduction with a request that he would be very nice to Captain Pelham while he was in Washington; and when the cabinet officer asked her what she wanted him to do for Captain Pelham, she replied promptly:— “Send him a card to the club.” Pelham was aghast at the boldness of this, and tried to imagine the daughter of a half–pay officer in England asking a cabinet minister to send a card to White’s and Brooke’s to a chance acquaintance she had just picked up. Elizabeth continued placidly: “Of course I could get a card through papa. He does not belong to the club,—it is too expensive,—but he knows a great many men in the club. You know he can’t afford anything except me; and there are plenty of other men who would send Captain Pelham a card if I asked them, but you happen to be the biggest man I know and that is why I am asking you.” At which the cabinet officer, laughing, said, “Will you be kind enough, Captain Pelham, to give me the name of your hotel?—and I will have a card sent to you to–morrow morning.” “And he has a cousin, Captain Darrell,” added Elizabeth, promptly, “and he must have a card, too.” “Certainly,” replied the cabinet officer, taking out his note–book and writing down the two names. “His brothers, cousins, and his uncles and all his relations, if you like,” and after taking the names down the cabinet officer walked away, laughing. This was an experience that Pelham thought his comrades would doubt when he told it at the mess–table of the 178th Foot. Pelham spent much more time with Mrs. Luttrell than with Elizabeth, and the two were mutually charmed. Mrs. Luttrell’s daring and positive language and her air of command were accompanied with a fascination of smile and voice which was effective even with her snow–white hair and crow’s feet around her eyes, still full of light and life. Pelham noticed that she was always surrounded by men, young and old. She treated the young men like patriarchs and the patriarchs like boys.