could not make up her mind about something with which he was closely
concerned.

"He would like to meet you again," said Braybrooke, with soft firmness.

"But I have met him again two or three times. He called on me."

"And I understand you were together in a restaurant in--Soho, I think it
was."

"Yes, we were."

"What did you think of him?" asked Braybrooke.

As he put the question he was aware that he was being far from subtle.
The vision in the distance--now eating plum cake, but still very
observant--upset his nervous system and deprived him almost entirely of
his usual savoir faire.

"He seems quite a nice sort of boy," said Miss Van Tuyn, still looking
rather coldly inquisitive, as if she were secretly puzzled but
intended to emerge into complete understanding before she had done
with Braybrooke. "His Foreign Office manner is rather against him. But
perhaps some day he'll grow out of that--unless it becomes accentuated."

"If you knew him better I feel sure you would like him. He had no
reservations about you--none at all. But, then, how could he have?"

"Well, at any rate I haven't got the Foreign Office manner."