He has a wonderful talent for organization and a good deal of influence with the trades unions .-- By the by, it's all right about the muffins." She rang the bell and ordered tea.

Tallente glanced for a moment about the room.

The four walls were lined with well-filled bookcases, but the mural decorations consisted--except for one wonderful nude figure, copy of a well-known Rodin--of statistical charts and shaded maps.

There were only two signs of feminine occupation: an immense bowl of red roses, rising with strange effect from the sea of manuscript, pamphlets, and volumes of reference, and a wide, luxurious couch, drawn up to the window, through which the tops of a little clump of lime trees were just visible.

As she turned back to him, he noticed with more complete appreciation the lines of her ample but graceful figure, the more remarkable because she was neither tall nor slim.
"So that was your wife at Claridge's yesterday afternoon ?" she remarked, a little abruptly.
He assented in silence.