"'I had suggested that she should divorce me, but she would not do that, for she complained of a nervous fear of being left alone in a house. We were in Rome then, and we could envisage no possible husband for her from among our acquaintance--so she begged me to continue in my capacity for a while. Of course, I was only too pleased.... In the end we hit upon the only way out of the _impasse_--that she should do what she had (so successfully, she sweetly said) done before, and risk the adventure; and if the young man was acceptable, and broke his solemn promise, and came to see her, then he would be made to suffer the penalty of his weakness--happy, wretched youth! But I would not let her take the risk without some guarantee as to her safety, for even adventures can sometimes become unpleasant, and so I insisted that I should be her chauffeur for the occasion--and from beginning to end of the adventure, I insisted. To which she replied, smiling, that it would not always be the same--"you will not be kept waiting long," she said. "'And it happened as she said, for in the two adventures before this of yours I was indeed not kept waiting long. Not for more than an hour, in fact--in each case the wretched young man had a good supper and left immediately after, wondering how this most unattainable of women had ever come, so informally, to invite him. The first happened in Vienna, the second in Paris--they bored her utterly to death, she told me. And thus the occasion for the promise, the pivot of the adventure, as you realise, never arose in those two cases. But in yours, the third....' "'Yes?' I asked eagerly. "'The night air was certainly chilly,' he demurred gently. "He was silent for a few long minutes. I waited intently. And then he leaned forward towards me, and put a hand lightly on my knee. "'Young man, will you forgive an impertinence?' His eyes held in them the kindliest light; my silence answered them, and he continued: 'I am perhaps twelve or thirteen years older than you, so I may be allowed the liberty of advising you--about something in which I am an expert. Never, never try to find the house to which you went a few hours ago--never, I say! And I say it because I like you, and because I know that she is the most enchanting woman in the world; and if _she_ likes you, so she is the more enchanting--and the more dangerous! As she was dangerous to me.... You forgive the liberty I have taken?' "He let his quite solemn speech balance in the air for a long pause, then got up and, very lazily, stretched his arms over his head. And a delightful, intimate smile passed over his lean face--the man had a large share of the divine essence of childishness. "'You know your 'Trilby'? he asked lightly; and murmured into the air:-- 'Hélas! Je sais un chant d'amour, Triste et gai, tour à tour!'