Catherine leaned back with a little sigh of relief.
"Every one calls this room of my aunt's the hotel lounge," she remarked.
"Personally, I love it." "To me, also, it is the ideal apartment," he confessed.

"Here we are alone, and I may ask you a question which was on my lips when we had tea together at the Carlton, and which, but for our environment, I should certainly have asked you at dinner time." "You may ask me anything," she assured him, with a little smile.

"I am feeling happy and loquacious.

Don't tempt me to talk, or I shall give away all my life's secrets." "I will only ask you for one just now," he promised.

"Is it true that you have to-day had some disagreement with--shall I say a small congress of men who have their meetings down at Westminster, and with whom you have been in close touch for some time ?" Her start was unmistakable.
"How on earth do you know anything about that ?" He shrugged his shoulders.
"These are the days," he said, "when, if one is to succeed in my profession, one must know everything." She did not speak for a moment.