The Duke found a place on the sofa beside Katherine as soon as the rest began their rubber, and here he could look at her undisturbed and without craning his neck. He admired her extremely. She was the exact type which pleased him, distinguished and well-bred looking. He liked the way she spoke, with no distressingly modern slang in her phrases. She must evidently have been most carefully brought up in a really refined home! Could she be a relation of the d'Estaires? But to ask questions of this sort was not his method, and he turned the conversation back to "Eothen" again and kindred things. Katherine was in the seventh heaven; she was blooming like a glowing hot-house plant and seemed to radiate sweetness and serenity. Every now and then she let her eyes meet his dark-blue ones, with that strange magnetic look in hers which she knew would compel his interest. They spoke of music and poetry, and then of pictures--pictures in general--and lastly those of Blissington. "Did she know Blissington well?" Yes, she knew it very well, and that enigmatic smile hovered for a moment round her lips. Mordryn was surprised at it. "It contains some recollections for you which are humorous, then?" "Yes--very humorous." "Won't you tell me what they are?" His most attractive clear-cut face came a little nearer to her in his interest. "Some day you will know." "How fraught with meaning! 'Some day I shall know!' Not to-night, then?" "No, for to-night we are guests at a dinner-party and are talking about literature and music and art." "But I want to talk about you--May I not?" "I do not see why you should. I am just a person whom you will never really see again--I mean, never really talk to again--so why waste time in unprofitable investigations?" "How do you know that they would be unprofitable?" Katherine looked down at her own white hands folded quietly in her lap, then up again and straight into his eyes. "This night week if you chance to think of this evening, you will realise how right I am as to their complete unprofitableness!" [Illustration: "'You are ready for the great adventure?'"] "You speak in riddles." She shrugged her shoulders slightly and smiled. His Grace found himself distinctly curious. "Why should you be so sure that I shall never really see--or was it speak to--you again? Do you then live on some desert island off the north of Scotland, by chance?" "In a much more inaccessible place than that." Her eyes sparkled with some unfathomable expression. "Iceland?" "There is an ice barrier surrounding it." "I shall have to give it up, and you will tell me yourself out of gratitude, for ceasing to tease you." Katherine leaned back on the soft green silk cushions of the sofa. She was looking most alluring in her new rôle of honoured guest. It was so delightful to be perfectly at ease and able to lean there, and not sit bolt upright in a chair in an attitude of respect. The Duke found the sight of her extremely soothing.