"Dear Lady James," she wheezed, wagging two fat hands, like a seal its flappers, "how good of you to come! You will find some interesting people here"--she looked round with pride at the collection of lions, old and young, tame and wild, fat and lean, sham and real. "Now, Mr. Wallace here--let me present him. Charming man--very outspoken--great traveller--Zambesi--knows cannibals intimately!" Then, behind a plump hand, whispered a nutshell biography, "Don't mention his wife--divorce." Thus warned, Leah got on excellently with the lean, brown, keen-eyed man, who confessed to extensive explorations. "Cannibals?--yes, Lady James, I know a few and love them." "What strange affection, Mr. Wallace! Why?" "They ate a man I detested. I fear he disagreed with them in death, as he always disagreed with me in life." Lady Jim laughed. "Is there any one here you would like to make a side-dish of?" she asked, letting her eyes rove. "No; I am a complete stranger in London. It is the one place I have not explored. But Mrs. Saracen has told me the past of many here, and I can give you histories, if you like." "Go on, then. Only don't give me dates, else the women here might scratch. I don't know these creatures myself," she went on, with the calm insolence of a great lady; "to me they are like your Central African natives." "I agree, Lady James--only less civilised." "In what way?" "Niggers wear no clothes, and, therefore, are more modest." "I can quite imagine it. That thin lady over there is evidently of your opinion"; and Leah glanced at a mature damsel who wore just sufficient clothing to prevent interference by the police. "Miss Fastine? She's a Naturopath, and is trying to revert to primitive simplicity." "With such a figure she might stop short of the Garden of Eden," said Lady Jim, dryly. "I never heard of a Naturopath. What is it?" "An American sect, which needs solitude to carry out its theories. The members sleep in the open, cover themselves with earth when they feel sick, and advocate the altogether." "You are joking, Mr. Wallace." The traveller stifled a laugh. "Upon my word, Lady James, I am in earnest. The sect really does exist. That stout man talking to Mrs. Saracen belongs to another queer lot. Calls himself an Osteopath." "What on earth is that?" "One who cures by vitalising the nerves." "I am as wise as I was before. Any more freaks?" "Yonder is a Christian Scientist. And the man on the left advocates Mahomedanism as the State religion in England." "While the dressmakers charge so ruinously, he'll never induce men to take four wives. And the woman in the red dress?" "Lady Tansey--a believer in spirits." "So I should imagine," said Lady Jim, surveying the lady's nose, which was long and thin and the hue of her gown. "No, no! I talk of heavenly spirits. Lady Tansey has a large circle of departed friends, who rap."