"Isn't it! But that table is up. I promised to cut in there. Captain Baring likes me to play at the same table, and he is here for such a short time that one tries to be kind. It is indeed kindness," she added, taking up her gold purse and belongings, "for he plays so badly." She moved towards the table. It happened to be Baring who cut out, and he and Norgate drifted together. They exchanged a few remarks. "I met you at Marseilles once," Norgate reminded him. "You were with the Mediterranean Squadron, commanding the _Leicester_, I believe." "Thought I'd seen you somewhere before," was the prompt acknowledgment. "You're in the Diplomatic Service, aren't you?" Norgate admitted the fact and suggested a drink. The two men settled down to exchange confidences over a whisky and soda. Baring looked around him with some disapprobation. "I can't really stick this place," he asserted. "If it weren't for--for some of the people here, I'd never come inside the doors. It's a rotten way of spending one's time. You play, I suppose?" "Oh, yes, I play," Norgate admitted, "but I rather agree with you. How wonderfully well Mrs. Benedek is looking, isn't she!" Baring withdrew his admiring eyes from her vicinity. "Prettiest and smartest woman in London," he declared. "By-the-by, is she English?" Norgate asked. "A mixture of French, Italian, and German, I believe," Baring replied. "Her husband is Benedek the painter, you know." "I've heard of him," Norgate assented. "What are you doing now?" "I've had a job up in town for a week or so, at the Admiralty," Baring explained. "We are examining the plans of a new--but you wouldn't be interested in that." "I'm interested in anything naval," Norgate assured him. "In any case, it isn't my job to talk about it," Baring continued apologetically. "We've just got a lot of fresh regulations out. Any one would think we were going to war to-morrow." "I suppose war isn't such an impossible event," Norgate remarked. "They all say that the Germans are dying to have a go at you fellows." Baring grinned. "They wouldn't have a dog's chance," he declared. "That's the only drawback of having so strong a navy. We don't stand any chance of getting a fight." "You'll have all you can do to keep up, judging by the way they talk in Germany," Norgate observed. "Are you just home from there?" Norgate nodded. "I am at the Embassy in Berlin, or rather I have been," he replied. "I am just home on six months' leave." "And that's your real impression?" Baring enquired eagerly. "You really think that they mean to have a go at us?" "I think there'll be a war soon," Norgate confessed. "It probably won't commence at sea, but you'll have to do your little lot, without a doubt." Baring gazed across the room. There was a hard light in his eyes.