He looked across at her keenly.
"What are you thinking of ?" he asked.
"I was thinking," she answered, after a moment's hesitation, "of Stella.
I was wondering what it must be to her to have to give up all these beautiful things." His expression hardened a little.

The smile had passed from his lips.
"You never knew your cousin, I think ?" he asked.
"Never," she admitted.
"Then I do not think," he said, "that you need waste your sympathy upon her.

Tell me, do you see that young lady in a mauve-coloured dress and a large hat, sitting three tables to the left of us ?" She looked across and nodded.
"Of course I do," she answered.

"How handsome she is, and what a strange-looking man she has with her! He looks very clever." Her uncle smiled once more, but his face lacked its benevolent expression.
"The man is clever," he answered.

"His name is Norris Vine, and he is a journalist, part owner of a newspaper, I believe.