Something in her rose up in arms.

"It shows how foolish they are," she said.

Stephen Strong glanced at her sideways, and if she could have read his
thoughts they were:

"This sweet Englishwoman is under Gritzko's spell already, and how she
is battling against it! She won't have a chance, though, if he makes up
his mind to win."

But Tamara, for all her gentle features, was no weakling; only her life
had been a long hibernation; and now the spring had come, and soon the
time of the finding of honey and a new life.

"What can he be talking about to my friend, Mr. Strong?" she asked, as
the two passed again. "Millicent is one of the last women he can have
anything in common with; she would simply die of horror if she heard
any of these stories--and he can't be interested in a word she says."

"He always does the unexpected," and Stephen Strong laughed as he said
it. He himself was amused at this ill-matched pair.

"Mrs. Hardcastle is agreeable to look at, too," he continued.

Tamara smiled scornfully.

"That is the lowest view to take. One should be above material
appearance."