“There I agree with you,” Lord Castleford said, “but in Paris there is no pretence. The alluring women to whom you refer so warmly all have their price. It is just a question of whom you can afford and the price being paid is entirely a question of sensual enjoyment without any aftermath of reproach, recrimination or, far worse, tears!”

Lord Stratford looked amused.

He could understand now why Lord Castleford, who was extremely good-looking, could speak so scathingly of women.

Obviously he had been pursued relentlessly and perhaps even persecuted by women who to him had meant a brief transitory liaison, but which they wished to prolong into something far more serious and permanent.

Lord Stratford could remember the same sort of thing happening to him in his youth when he had been as good-looking as Lord Castleford.

Even now, he thought, there were times when a woman looked at him with an expression in her eyes that he could not misunderstand and when it was difficult to extract himself from an embarrassing situation, especially if his wife was not with him.

At the same time he could not help thinking that Lord Castleford was too self-confident and that it would in fact do him good if he fell in love and suffered the heartburn, the pangs of despair and the agony of indecision that most men passed through at some time in their lives.

But he was too experienced a diplomat to say anything. He merely changed the subject to talk of Greece in which Lord Castleford was at once absorbedly interested.

*

The following day when Lord Castleford returned from riding, which was an exercise he preferred above all others, Lord Stratford had news for him.

“I have discovered that The Himalaya will be leaving here the day after tomorrow,” he said, “carrying a large number of casualties who are too badly wounded to return to the front, but well enough to endure the journey home.”

“The ship will take me to Athens?” Lord Castleford enquired.

“That is what I have arranged,” Lord Stratford replied, “and let me say that you are lucky The Himalaya is available.”

“I have heard of her.”

“It was not until the beginning of this year,” the Ambassador went on, “that the Government realised how foolish their policy was of sending out Cavalry and Artillery in sailing vessels. It rendered many of the horses unfit for service and the Military Commanders warned the Government very strongly of the hardship that was endured by the Cavalry Regiments.”

“You would think that they would have understood it from the very first!” Lord Castleford said, “and moved more quickly.”

“Do Governments ever act swiftly?” Lord Stratford asked bitterly. “The only time they expect miracles is from people like myself! I still smile when I remember that the Duke of Newcastle asked me for thirty thousand pairs of Wellington boots, imagining I could find them overnight in the Bazaar!”

Lord Castleford laughed.