They had met a year previously over the theft of a fabulously expensive dressing-case which had been one of her richest admirers' gifts to her, and though they had not met again since she had evidently not forgotten him. In spite of himself he was flattered — even while the looker-on bit of him was aware of it and laughed. He explained his business in the theatre, and the smile faded from her face instantly.

"Ah, that poor man!" she said. "But here is another," she added immediately, laying a hand on his arm. "Have you been asking questions all the afternoon? Your throat must be very dry. Come and have a cup of tea in my room with me. My maid is there and she will make us some. We are packing up, you know. It is very sad after such a long time."

She led the way to her dressing-room, a place that was walled half with mirrors and half with wardrobes, and that looked more like a florist's shop than any apartment designed for human habitation. She indicated the flowers with a wave of her hand.

"My flat won't hold any more, so these have to stay here. The hospitals were very polite, but they said quite firmly that they had had as much as they could do with. And I can't very well say, 'No flowers, as they do at funerals, without hurting people."

"It's the only thing most people can do," Grant said.

"Oh, yes, I know," she said. "I'm not ungrateful. Only overwhelmed."

When tea was ready she poured out for him, and the maid produced shortbread from a tin. As he was stirring his tea and she was pouring out her own his mind brought him up with a sudden jerk, as an inexperienced rider jabs at his horse's mouth when startled. She was left-handed!

"Great heavens!" he said to himself disgustedly. "It isn't that you deserve a holiday, it's that you need it. What did you want to italicize a statement like that for? How many left-handed people do you think there are in London? You're developing the queerest kind of nerves."