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246 unsuspicious Letty. The conversation turned upon Mr. Romaine. The Colonel glowered darkly, and growled below his breath that Romaine, with age and eccentricities, was becoming intolerable. Madame de Fonblanque shrugged her shoulders.

"I hope none of you will be so unhappy as to have business transactions with Mr. Romaine. You will certainly find him a very difficult person." She said Farebrother seemed to be the only friend that Mr. Romaine had at the table.

"There 's really a great deal that is engaging and even admirable about him," he said. "He is a man of great natural astuteness, and if he took a stand he would be apt to know his ground well, so that he could hold it."

Madame de Fonblanque flashed a look at Farebrother, which he met with a cool smile. She knew that he suspected her, and he knew that she knew he suspected her. Her surroundings were entirely novel to her; her hosts were like the old provincial gentry in the remote corners of France, and such people are always much alike, and easy to hoodwink. She was grateful to them for their kindness, and had no thought of deceiving them any