She was lying back in her laziest and most pantherine attitude, and she looked up at me as I approached with eyes full of velvet softness.

For the life of me I could not help feeling glad that they were turned on me and not on Dale Kynnersley.
Almost immediately the elder Miss Bostock came up to claim the Colonel for bridge.

He rose reluctantly.
"I suppose it's no use asking you to make a fourth, Mr.de Gex ?" she asked, after the subacid manner of her kind.
"I'm afraid not," I replied sweetly.

Whereupon she rescued the Colonel from the syren and left me alone with her.

I lit a cigarette and sat by her side.