Mr.Van Torp, who often bought large pictures, was reminded of one recently offered to him in America, representing an empress.

He would have bought the portrait if the dealer could have remembered which empress it represented, but the fact that he could not had seemed suspicious to Mr.Van Torp.

It was clearly the man's business to know empresses by sight.
From her commanding position the Lady Maud refused her husband's invitation to go home with him.
'I shall certainly not go with you,' she said.

'Besides, I'm dining early at the Turkish Embassy and we are going to the play.

You need not wait for me.