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 Pointue and I are close friends, you know. He has been a great success. All of our set have received him. You must meet him. Where is he, I wonder? I thought he would follow me over here. Madame Despard must have seized on him to entertain some wallflower—he is so good-natured. Between ourselves," she added, in her desire to aggrandize her adorer, "he has an important mission over here; not officially, you know, and you mustn't refer to it. His telling me was quite confidential." Mrs. Durham smiled. "You may rest assured that Miss Claudel and I will keep the secret as you would yourself."

"Oh, I'm sure of it," Philippa went on, unconscious of the speaker's mild irony, "I am an excellent judge of people. I can count my mistakes on my fingers."

"But all this," Victoria objected, ruefully, "doesn't help me in the least. I cannot place the man, and I feel memory nagging at consciousness, as if it were connected with something important. Don't you hate that sensation?"

Mrs. Durham nodded assent. 120