Miss Claire Wymondham was shorter and plumper and had done her best by ill-applied cosmetics to make herself look like a foreign _demi-mondaine_.

They greeted me with the friendly casualness which I had long ago discovered was the right English manner towards your guests; as if they had just strolled in and billeted themselves, and you were quite glad to see them but mustn't be asked to trouble yourself further.

The next second they were cooing like pigeons round a picture which a young man was holding up in the lamplight.
He was a tallish, lean fellow of round about thirty years, wearing grey flannels and shoes dusty from the country roads.

His thin face was sallow as if from living indoors, and he had rather more hair on his head than most of us.

In the glow of the lamp his features were very clear, and I examined them with interest, for, remember, I was expecting a stranger to give me orders.