She gives him one swift brilliant glance, and then suddenly grows restless.

"How _warm_ it is!" she says fretfully.

"I wish----" What she was going to say, will never now be known.

The approach of a tall, gaunt figure through the hanging oriental curtains at the end of the conservatory checks her speech.

Sir Hastings Curzon is indeed taller than most men, and is, besides, a man hardly to be mistaken again when once seen.