thronged with dancers who were crowding out of the ballroom and drifting
towards the refreshment-room, the entrance to which was also visible.

An ancient settee had been placed in this coign of vantage, and upon this
they established themselves by mutual consent.

The man was laughing a little below his breath. "I feel like a
refugee," he said.

His companion leaned her arms upon the narrow row sill and gazed
downwards. "A refugee from boredom?" she suggested. "We are all that,
more or less."

"I dispute that," he said at once. "It is only the bores who are
ever bored."

"And I dispute that," she replied, without turning, "of necessity, in
self-defence."

He leaned forward to catch the light upon her profile. "You are bored?"

She smiled faintly in the gloom. "That is why I have engaged the services
of a jester."

"By Jove," he said, "I'm glad you pitched on me."

She made a slight movement of impatience. "Isn't it rather futile to say
that sort of thing?"

"Why?" he asked.