"Ah, I don’t wonder!" said the other with an admiring glance of approval. "You are just the sort that they would buy everything for if they got the chance. A little standoffish, too--ain’t that what they like? Oh, I know them through and through!" In spite of herself, Isla laughed out loud. "Oh, it was a very old friend of my family who was seeing me off to-day! My father’s lawyer in fact." "Ah, then, he knew what side his bread was buttered on. And are you goin’ to London, may I ask?" "Yes." "What particular part?" "I shall stay the night at the Euston Hotel. I may go abroad. My plans are a little indefinite at present." "Same as mine. It ain’t an easy thing for a lone woman to make up her mind, and, as I told the party I spoke of, last night, I’m gettin’ tired of uncertainty. I want to know where I am. That’s what for I took that long journey and stopped at that queer little hotel. I wanted to see a party and get my bearings." "And did you get them?" asked Isla desperately. "Yes, I think so. But, bless you, you never know where you are with them. They’re as slippery as eels. If you weren’t so pretty, my dear, I’d warn you to steer clear of them for the rest of your mortal life. But it ain’t in reason that you’ll be allowed. There must be dozens after you." Isla shook her head and then pointed suggestively to the illustrated papers, even making a remark about one of the pictures on the cover. But the lady did not accept the hint. "I don’t read much," she confessed. "And men and women are much more interesting than books. When you’ve seen a bit of life, as I have, what’s written in a book doesn’t count for much. It’s like a stuffed sawdust man beside a real flesh-and-blood one. Yes, they’re a slippery crew, but they makes life--don’t they, my dear?" "They make its dispeace, anyhow," said Isla, surprised into an expression of opinion that she immediately regretted. Her companion’s face brightened, and she sat forward eagerly. "Fancy you thinkin’ that! Well, as you’ve had reason to say that, I don’t mind tellin’ you I agree. They’re worth watchin’, they need watchin’ all the time, though most of them are like babies, with no more thought of what’s goin’ to happen. Now there’s me! When I was in India I was pretty and slim as you are, though you wouldn’t think it, and I was a toast in the station and could have had me pick after Joe died. There was the Sergeant--a splendid figure of a man with four medals and pay saved. He would have married me right off, and so would the little Corporal, and even one of the subs. that had an Earl for his grandfather; but I passed by them all and took up with one that nobody could be sure of. He’s here to-day and gone to-morrow, so to speak, and even his wife couldn’t keep him on the string." Isla jumped up with her colour fluttering and threw down her paper.