"Always tactful, dear hostess," he murmured.

"As a matter of fact, nothing but the circumstance that it was your invitation and that Madame Selarne was to be present, brought me here to-day.

It is so hard to avoid speaking of the great things, and for a man in my position," he added, dropping his voice a little, "so difficult to say anything worth listening to about them, without at any rate the semblance of indiscretion." "We all appreciate that," Lady Anselman assured him sympathetically.
"Madame Selarne has promised to give us an outline of the new play which she is producing in Manchester." "If that would interest you all," Madame Selarne assented, "it commences--so!" For a time they nearly all listened in absorbed silence.

Her gestures, the tricks of her voice, the uplifting of her eyebrows and shoulders--all helped to give life and colour to the little sketch she expounded.

Only those at the remote end of the table ventured upon an independent conversation.