By the time she had completed these operations a dressing-bell sounded, and quickly exchanging her travelling costume for a filmy little dinner dress of some soft, shimmering material, she sallied downstairs in search of the dining-room.

Mrs. Lawrence met her on the threshold, warmly welcoming, and conducting her to her allotted place at the lower end of a long table, around which were seated—­as it appeared to Diana in that first dizzy moment of arrival—­dozens of young women varying from twenty to thirty years of age.  In reality there were but a baker’s dozen of them, and they all painstakingly abstained from glancing in her direction lest they might be thought guilty of rudely staring at a newcomer.

Diana’s vis-a-vis at table was the redoubtable Miss Jenkins of coal-box fame, and her neighbours on either hand two students of one of the musical colleges.  Next to Miss Jenkins, Diana observed a vacant place; presumably its owner was dining out.  She also noticed that she alone among the boarders had attempted to make any kind of evening toilet.  The others had “changed” from their workaday clothes, it is true, but a light silk blouse, worn with a darker skirt, appeared to be generally regarded as a sufficient recognition of the occasion.

Diana’s near neighbours were at first somewhat tongue-tied with a nervous stiffness common to the Britisher, but they thawed a little as the meal progressed, and when the musical students, Miss Jones and Miss Allen, had elicited that she was actually a pupil of the great Baroni, envy and a certain awed admiration combined to unseal the fountains of their speech.

Just as the fish was being removed, the door opened to admit a tall, thin woman, wearing outdoor costume, who passed quickly down the room and took the vacant place at the table, murmuring a curt apology to Mrs. Lawrence on her way.  To Diana’s astonishment she recognised in the newcomer Olga Lermontof, Baroni’s accompanist.

“Miss Lermontof!” she exclaimed.  “I had no idea that you lived here.”

Miss Lermontof nodded a brief greeting.

“How d’you do?  Yes, I’ve lived here for some time.  But I didn’t know that you were coming.  I thought you had rooms somewhere?”

“So I had.  But I was obliged to give them up, and Signor Baroni suggested this instead.”

“Hope you’ll like it,” returned Miss Lermontof shortly.  “At any rate, it has the advantage of being only quarter of an hour’s walk from Grellingham Place.  I’ve just come from there.”  And with that she relapsed into silence.