I should not be likely to--forget--so charming a _rencontre_." There was surely a veiled mockery in his composed tones, irreproachably courteous though they were, and Diana coloured hotly.

Somehow, this man possessed the faculty of making her feel awkward and self-conscious and horribly young; he himself was so essentially of the polished type of cosmopolitan that beside him she felt herself to be as raw and crude as any bread-and-butter miss fresh from the schoolroom.

Moreover, she had an inward conviction that in reality he recollected the incident in Grellingham Place as clearly as she did herself, although he refused to admit it.
She relapsed into an uncomfortable silence, and presently the attendant from the restaurant car came along the corridor and looked in to ask if they were going to have dinner on the train.

Both nodded an affirmative.
"Table for two ?" he queried, evidently taking them to be two friends travelling together.
Diana was about to enlighten him when her _vis-a-vis_ leaned forward hastily.
"Please," he said persuasively, and as she returned no answer he apparently took her silence for consent, for something passed unobtrusively from his hand to that of the attendant, and the latter touched his hat with a smiling--"Right you are, sir! I'll reserve a table for two." Diana felt that the acquaintance was progressing rather faster than she could have wished, but she hardly knew how to check it.

Finally she mustered up courage to say firmly:-- "It must only be if I pay for my own dinner." "But, of course," he answered courteously, with the slightest tinge of surprise in his tones, and once again Diana, felt that she had made a fool of herself and blushed to the tips of her ears.
A faint smile trembled for an instant on his lips, and then, without apparently noticing her confusion, he began to talk, passing easily from one subject to another until she had regained her confidence, finally leading her almost imperceptibly into telling him about herself.
In the middle of dinner she paused, aghast at her own loquacity.
"But what a horrible egotist you must think me!" she exclaimed.