And, having made this plain statement, he stood silently looking at
her. He looked into her eyes, and she met his odd, direct gaze without
embarrassment.

"Cartoner and I," Prince Martin hastened to explain, "travelled from
Berlin together, and we agreed then that, much as we might desire it, it
would be inconvenient for me to show him that attention which one would
naturally want to show to an Englishman travelling in Poland. That is
why he went the other way when he saw you."

Wanda looked at Cartoner with her quick, shrewd smile. It would have
been the obvious thing to have confirmed this explanation. But Cartoner
kept silent. He had acquired, it seemed, the fatal habit--very rare
among men and almost unknown in women--of thinking before he spoke.
Which habit is deadly for that which is called conversation, because if
one decides not to give speech to the obvious and the unnecessary and
the futile there is in daily intercourse hardly anything left.

"You see," said Martin, who always had plenty to say for himself,
"in this province of Russia we are not even allowed to choose our own
friends."

"Even in a free country one does not pick one's friends out, like the
best strawberries from a basket," said Wanda.

"Not a question to be arranged beforehand," put in Cartoner.

"Not even by the governor-general of Poland?" asked Wanda, looking
thoughtfully at the falling leaves which a sudden gust of wind had