No, she was not going to snub him. On the contrary, she gave him a very pleasant smile, and he noted with satisfaction that her voice was a refined and pleasant one. "There is hardly any question of intruding in a public place like this. I cannot expect them to turn customers away in order that I may sit by myself." It was not a bad beginning, thought Hugh. It was evident she was not disinclined to enter into a little desultory conversation with a man who she knew was a gentleman, and not likely to take undue advantage of her absence of conventionality. Hugh went on with growing boldness. He had often said to his great chum Jack Pomfret that it was a thousand pities this pretty girl was not in Blankfield Society, she seemed so much more attractive than the other girls who were in it. "We haven't been introduced, of course, but I know you very well by sight. There is hardly a day that I do not meet you about here. And I know your name, too. You are Miss Burton, are you not? And you live with your brother at that nice little house on the London Road." "Quite right." Miss Burton nodded her pretty head. She added with a little silvery laugh: "we can't be introduced, unless the waitress took the kind office upon herself, for I don't know a soul in the place. we have been here two months, and we have been let severely alone. I suppose if we stayed here for twenty years it would be the same. Of course, we didn't expect to get into 'county' Society, but we must be quite as good as heaps of people in the town and outskirts." Hugh was a little embarrassed by these very frank remarks. He observed lamely that it was a shame, and indulged in some rather inane remarks on the snobbishness of provincial towns. "You must find it awfully dull," he ventured after a brief pause. During the short silence, Miss Burton had ordered herself some more tea. It was evident that she was not desirous of abruptly terminating this pleasant _tête-à-tête_. The waitress drew her own conclusions from the further order, and smiled a little as she turned away. "I should be a hypocrite if I pretended the contrary. Of course, housekeeping takes up a good bit of my time, and I read a good deal, and do a lot of fancy-work. But all the same, it is a state of isolation, not an outside person to speak to from one week-end to the other. Of course I hear all that is going on from the tradespeople, and I know the names of the principal persons here whom I constantly meet and never speak to. I know, for instance, that you are Captain Murchison. I think I know the names of all your brother officers." "What made you come here, if it is not a rude question?" asked Hugh bluntly. "It was surely a risky experiment, landing yourself in a town like this, without any introductions."