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 proceeded to apologise as if there were a counter between them; but Lola continued with her telephone conversation, and again he had to beat a retreat.

Another man of mature years and over-mature complexion seemed to be in a perpetual state of having lost something, which he suspected was in Lola's neighbourhood. Yet another invariably carried his hat in his hand. Beresford suspected that his object was to slip it on a chair just before Lola sat down. After all, when you have sat on a man's hat, it is a little difficult to refuse to receive his apologies!

The Thirty-Nine Articles, as Beresford dubbed them after a careful count, resorted to every possible form of device to scrape an acquaintance with the heiress. The one thing they did not do was to take the plunge. There was something in Lola's manner that awed them. There was a reserve and dignity about her bearing that was unmistakable, and instinctively the Thirty-Nine Articles recognised it, a circumstance that increased Beresford's unpopularity.

For a time Beresford lived in an atmosphere of reflected glory and the offer of unlimited hospitality. As soon as he showed his face in any of the common-rooms, men seemed to hurtle through space and demand that he should drink with them. Cigar and cigarette-cases were thrust upon him, men challenged him to billiards, sought his company for strolls, invited him to bridge, suggested the theatre, a bathe or an hour's fishing. He found it all very