Dinner proceeded leisurely. Nan noticed that her companion drank very little and exhibited a most unmasculine lack of interest in the inspirations of the chef. Yet she knew intuitively that he was alertly conscious of the quiet perfection of it all. She dropped into a brief reverie of which the man beside her was the subject and from which his voice presently recalled her.
"I hope you're going to play to us this evening?"
"That's sufficient command for most of those to whom she gives the privilege of friendship, isn't it?"
There was a quiet ring of sincerity in his voice as he spoke of Kitty, and Nan's heart warmed towards him.
"Yes," she assented eagerly. "One can't say 'no' to her. But I don't care for it--playing in a drawing-room after dinner."
"No." Again that quick comprehension of his. "The chosen few and the chosen moment are what you like."
"How do you know?" she asked impulsively.
"Because I think the 'how' and the 'where' of things influence you enormously."
"Don't they influence you, too?" she demanded.
"Oh, they count--decidedly. But I'm not a woman, nor an artiste, so I'm not so much at the mercy of my temperament."
The man's insight was extraordinarily keen, but touched with a little insouciant tenderness that preserved it from being critical in any hostile sense. Nan heaved a small sigh of contentment at finding herself in such an atmosphere.
"How well you understand women," she commented with a smile.
"It's very nice of you to say so, though I haven't got the temerity to agree with you."
Then, looking down at her intently, he added:
"I'm not likely, however, to forget that you've said it. . . . Perhaps I may remind you of it some day."
The abrupt intensity of his manner startled her. For the second time that evening the vivid personal note had been struck, suddenly and unforgettably.
The presidential uprising of the women at the end of dinner saved her from the necessity of a reply. Mallory drew her chair aside and, as he handed her the cambric web of a handkerchief she had let fall, she found him regarding her with a gently humorous expression in his eyes.
"This quaint English custom!" he said lightly. "All you women go into another room to gossip and we men are condemned to the society of one another! I'm afraid even I'm not British enough to appreciate such a droll arrangement. Especially this evening."