"Yes. You have heard, no doubt, of the Young Hungarian party? The Countess is a leader in that party. A woman of great wealth, left a widow at an early age, she has devoted her money and her talents to public service. She has especially devoted herself to the problem of infant mortality--a terrible one under present conditions in Hungary. I--Ah! here is Herr Eberhard." The German inventor was younger than Bundle had imagined him. He was probably not more than thirty-three or four. He was boorish and ill at ease, and yet his personality was not an unpleasing one. His blue eyes were more shy than furtive, and his more unpleasant mannerisms, such as the one that Bill had described of gnawing his finger-nails, arose, she thought, more from nervousness than from any other cause. He was thin and weedy in appearance and looked anaemic and delicate. He conversed rather awkwardly with Bundle in stilted English and they both welcomed the interruption of the joyous Mr. O'Rourke. Presently Bill bustled in--there is no other word for it. In the same such way does a favoured Newfoundland make his entrance, and at once came over to Bundle. He was looking perplexed and harassed. "Hullo, Bundle. Heard you'd got here. Been kept with my nose to the grindstone all the blessed afternoon or I'd have seen you before." "Cares of State heavy to-night?" suggested O'Rourke sympathetically. Bill groaned. "I don't know what your fellow's like," he complained. "Looks a good-natured, tubby little chap. But Codders is absolutely impossible. Drive, drive, drive, from morning to night. Everything you do is wrong, and everything you haven't done you ought to have done." "Quite like a quotation from the prayer book," remarked Jimmy, who had just strolled up. Bill glanced at them reproachfully. "Nobody knows," he said pathetically, "what I have to put up with." "Entertaining the Countess, eh?" suggested Jimmy. "Poor Bill, that must have been a sad strain--to a woman hater like yourself." "What's this?" asked Bundle. "After tea," said Jimmy with a grin, "the Countess asked Bill to show her round the interesting old place." "Well, I couldn't refuse, could I?" said Bill, his countenance assuming a brick-red tint. Bundle felt faintly uneasy. She knew, only too well, the susceptibility of Mr. William Eversleigh to female charms. In the hands of a woman like the Countess, Bill would be as wax. She wondered once more whether Jimmy Thesiger had been wise to take Bill into their confidence. "The Countess," said Bill, "is a very charming woman. And no end intelligent. You should have seen her going round the house. All sorts of questions she asked." "What kind of questions?" asked Bundle suddenly. Bill was vague. "Oh! I don't know. About the history of it. And old furniture. And--oh! all sorts of things."