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 situation, smiled sweetly at Mrs. Durham's struggles in the well-known net.

"Let us say next Thursday, then," she finally put in, with decision.

Mrs. Durham's mouth opened to remind Victoria of the Gordon's poster-party, but a dig from a neatly shod foot turned the reminder to a cordial acceptance.

Victoria broached her puzzle. "Who is the man you came in with, Philippa? I've seen him somewhere, or else he looks like some one I have seen, but I can't place him, and my brain is softening from the strain."

Philippa's face brightened, delighted to blow the trumpet of her protégé's prowess. "Mr. Valdeck. Such a dear. He's quite after your own heart, so charming, so cultivated, so well-bred. He belongs to a well-known Polish family, is wealthy. He is travelling for pleasure under an incognito, of course, to avoid newspaper reporters and that sort of thing. Oh, he is a very serious, retiring sort of fellow in spite of his social position. The Pointue girls gave him letters of introduction—one to me, of course— 119