‘Surely we are not strangers to one another, Mr. Belassis. I thought the name was too uncommon to deceive me. A second Alfred Belassis, a contemporary, would be too remarkable a phenomenon. I hope you are quite well?’ ‘Quite, thank you,’ muttered Belassis, feeling delightfully conscious that his wife’s eye was upon him. ‘You have not visited Whitbury lately, I think?’ went on Miss Marjory pleasantly. ‘N—no, not lately.’ ‘I do not think I have seen you since you were quite a young man; still, I am sure I should know you anywhere.’ People were just beginning to wake up to the consciousness that Mr. Belassis was ill at ease, when the dinner was announced. Signor Pagliadini had come two minutes earlier, and now offered his arm to Miss Marjory. Tor took in Mrs. Belassis, Mr. Belassis paired off with Maud, and gladly remained behind with her till the rest had gone. ‘I did not know you knew Miss Marjory Descartes. Is she not delightful?’ ‘Oh, very!—yes, quite so—delightful! I only knew her a little, and that was ages ago.’ ‘She seems to remember you very well,’ said Maud innocently. ‘You must have made a great impression.’ Mr. Belassis coughed and stumbled, as he followed the company downstairs. Miss Marjory’s tongue did good service in making conversation flow freely at table that day. It was an oddly-assorted company, and an effort was needed before the appropriate air of festivity could be attained. Mr. and Mrs. Belassis distrusted one another, and were at all but open enmity with their hosts. Signor Pagliadini was a stranger, a foreigner, and a supposed spy. Miss Marjory was just the one woman upon earth Belassis most feared to meet. Lewis was awaiting dismissal at Maud’s hands in the course of the evening. Almost everyone at table had good cause to fear or distrust some one or more of the company; and with all these conflicting elements, it was not easy to make talk run smoothly. Miss Marjory, however, was not to be daunted by any such trivial difficulties as these, and Tor backed her up boldly. When the ice was once broken, there was not the same necessity for exertion. People began to talk to their neighbours, and a pleasant hum took the place of the first silence, and grew louder as time went on. Miss Marjory felt at liberty to talk to her neighbours, and to amuse herself, now that she had accomplished her more difficult task. ‘You understand English remarkably well, Signor,’ she observed suddenly to her partner. ‘It is very odd that you do not speak it.’ She spoke in English herself; but his answer was in French. ‘Madame flatters me!’ ‘Stuff and nonsense! I never flatter anybody. Anyone can see by your face that you can understand every word that passes.’ ‘Pardon, Madame——’ ‘And what’s more,’ continued Miss Marjory relentlessly, ‘I don’t believe you’re an Italian at all!’ ‘Mais, Madame——’