“Ah, Mathilde, that you should be in such pressing need of so large a sum must mean that you have been drawn into some deplorable speculation! I will wager that you invested in those Oural copper mines after all!”

“I thought the shares were going up,” was Madame de Vibray’s excuse: she lowered her eyes like a naughty schoolgirl caught in the act.

Thomery, who had risen, and was walking up and down the room, halted in front of her:

“I do beg of you to consult those who know all the ins and outs, persons competent to advise you, when you are bent on plunging into speculations of this description! The Barbey-Nanteuil people can give you reliable information; I myself, you know...”

“But since it is really of no importance!” interrupted Madame de Vibray, who had no wish to listen to the remonstrances of her overly cautious friend, “what does it matter? It is my only diversion now!... I love gambling – the emotions it arouses in one, the perpetual hopes and fears it excites!”Thomery was about to reply, to argue, to remonstrate further, but the Baroness had caught him glancing at the clock hanging beside the fireplace

“I am making you dine late,” she said in a tone of apology. Then, with a touch of malice, and looking up at Thomery from under her eyes, to see how he took it:

“You are to be rewarded for having to wait! I have invited Princess Sonia Danidoff to dine with you!” Thomery started. He frowned. He again seated himself beside the Baroness

“You have invited her?...”

“Yes... and why not?... I believe this pretty woman is one of your special friends... that you consider her the most charming of all your friends now!...”

Thomery did not take up the challenge; he simply said:

“I had an idea that the Princess was not much to your taste!” The eyes of Madame de Vibray flashed a sad, strange look on her old friend, as she said gently:

“One can accustom oneself to anything and everything, my dear friend.... Besides, I quite recognise that the Princess deserves the reputation she enjoys of being wonderfully beautiful, and also intellectual...” Thomery did not reply to this: he looked puzzled, annoyed.

The Baroness continued:

“They even say that handsome bachelor, Monsieur Thomery, is not indifferent to her fascinations!... That, for the first time in his life, he is ready to link...”

“Oh, as for that!...” Thomery was protesting, when the door opened, and the Princess Sonia Danidoff rustled into the room, a superbly – a dazzlingly beautiful vision, all audacity and charm.

“Accept all my apologies, dear Baroness,” she cried, “for arriving so late; but the streets are so crowded!”

“...And I live such a long way out!” added Madame de Vibray.

“You live in a charming part,” amended the Princess.

Then, catching sight of Thomery: