"A lady!" he gasped. "Who is she?" and he hoped wildly that it might be Violet. "You know her well enough, old boy," came the high-pitched voice of Miss Ermyn L'Estrange, who now appeared in the dining-room, a pink-faced vision in a flower-garden hat and muslins. "Poof!" she cried. "I have not been out for many a day before the streets were aired. Say, young party, that bacon and egg has a more gratifying scent than violets. I have come all the way from Chelsea on one cup of tea." The charwoman, eying the visitor askance, admitted that more supplies could be arranged. "Hurry up, then, fairy," said Miss L'Estrange. "And don't look so shocked. Your master here is the very goodest young man in London." David said that even the just man fell seven times a day; but, anyhow, he was delighted to see her. "You look it," was the dry response. "I never knew anybody who threw their heart into their eyes as you do. You will never get on in London if you don't learn to lie better. When you say that sort of thing you should gush a little and leer--at any rate, when you are talking to a woman." "But I mean it," he vowed. "You can't tell how nice it is to have some frills on the other side of the table. That hat, now, is a picture." "The hair is a bad color to suit, you know." "Ah, no, it has the gold of the sun in it. Perhaps I may be phrasing the words awkwardly, but you look ten years younger this morning, Miss L'Estrange." She turned her eyes to the ceiling. "Ye gods!" she cried, "if only I had those ten back again!" Then she gave David a coy glance. "I don't mind betting you half a quid," she said, "that you are only pleased to see me here because I bring to your mind the possibility of another girl being your vis-a-vis at breakfast." "Now you would make me dumb when I am most anxious to talk." "Oh, you candid wretch! Why did I come here? Don't you believe that there are twenty men in London who would give quite a lot if I honored them by this morning call?" "I do believe it," said David, gravely, "and that is just why you are here, and not with one of the twenty. You are a far more upright little lady than you profess to be, Miss L'Estrange." She actually blushed, for, like most women who are compelled to make up professionally, never an atom of grease or rouge was on her face at other times. "David," she said, "you are a nice boy. I wish you were my brother." "You would be fine and dandy as a sister." "Well, let's be friends. And the first sign of friendship is a common alliance. I've taken your side against Strauss." "What of him?" demanded David, warily; for Miss Ermyn was a slippery customer, he fancied. "Now, no fencing, or the alliance is off. You were down at Rigsworth yesterday, remember, and you came back in a mighty temper. Not even your pretty Violet was all perfection last evening, was she?" "Things did go wrong, I admit," said he, marveling at this attack.