Shall I be your secretary ?" "How do you know that I need a secretary ?" she asked.
"How should I ?" he replied.

"Yet you are not altogether an idler in life, are you ?" For a moment she did not answer.

The silence in the room was almost impressive.

He looked at her over the top of the soda-water syphon whose handle he was manipulating.
"What do you imagine might be my occupation, then ?" she asked.
"I have heard it suggested," he said slowly, "that you have been a useful intermediary in carrying messages of the utmost importance between the Kaiser and the Emperor of Austria." "Your Intelligence Department is not so bad," she remarked.

"It is true.
Why not?
At the German Court I count for little, perhaps.