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162 same, like Horniman's tea or a good brand of whisky, it would be easier, of course; you'd stand some chance of spotting him. But when a man turns up smiling every time in a different disguise, which fits him like a skin, and always apparently with the best credentials, why, hang it all, Sey, there's no wrestling with him anyhow.'

'Who could have come to us, for example, better vouched,' I acquiesced, 'than the Honourable David?'

'Exactly so,' Charles murmured. 'I invited him myself, for my own advantage. And he arrived with all the prestige of the Glen-Ellachie connection.'

'Or the Professor?' I went on. 'Introduced to us by the leading mineralogist of England.'

I had touched a sore point. Charles winced and remained silent.

'Then, women again,' he resumed, after a painful pause. 'I must meet in society many charming women. I can't everywhere and always be on my guard against every dear soul of them. Yet the moment I relax my attention for one day—or even when I don't relax it—I am bamboozled and led a dance by that arch Mme. Picardet, or that transparently simple little minx, Mrs. Granton. She's the cleverest girl I ever met in my life, that hussy, whatever we're to call her. She's a different person each time; and each time, hang it all, I lose my heart afresh to that different person.'

I glanced round to make sure Amelia was well out of earshot.