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Rh and felt with interest that philosophy probably bored him as much as it did her. He was a man of action. Nearly all the men she knew were men of talk.

She felt irritated with Alice when the men were left in the dining-room and the women rustled up stairs together; she saw no present reason for this arrangement. Dress was the topic of discussion, and over their coffee and cigarettes Mrs. Kerr and Alice talked eagerly about a new dressmaker, one of their acquaintances turned to business, who was more expensive than anything in Paris, and promised to be the rage. For the first time that evening a real interest lighted Alice's large eyes; she looked, as she rapturously described a toilette of purple velvet, almost like a sentient being. Teresa and Mary Addams exchanged an expressive glance, and Teresa was about to move her chair nearer to Mary's, with a view to escaping further boredom, when Crayven walked into the room alone.

"Will you send me back, please, if you don't want me?" he said to Alice with a deprecating smile.

"Of course, we want you—we're highly flattered," she assured him graciously, but looking a little put out.

He sat down by Teresa, and offered her a cigarette from his own case. Alice gave him a cup of coffee.