It was well-dressed Bohemia, with many markings and varied with contrasting shades.  The air was as sugar about the doorway with the scent of gardenias; young lords shrank from the weather-stained cloth of doubtful journalists, and a lady in long puce Cashmere provoked a smile.  Frank received his guests with laughter and epigram.

The emancipation of the women is marked by the decline of the chaperon, and it was not clear under whose protection the young girls had come.  Beneath double rows of ruche-rose feet passed, and the soft glow of lamps shaded with large leaves of pale glass bathed the women’s flesh in endless half tints; the reflected light of copper shades flushed the blonde hair on Lady Helen’s neck to auroral fervencies.

In one group a fat man with white hair and faded blue eyes talked to Mrs. Bentham and Lewis Seymour.  A visit to the Haymarket Theatre being arranged, he said—­

“May I hope to be permitted to form one of the party?”

Harding overheard the remark.  He said, “It is difficult to believe, but I assure you that that Mr. Senbrook was one of the greatest Don Juans that ever lived.”

“We have in this room Don Juan in youth, middle age, and old age—­Mike Fletcher, Lewis Seymour, and Mr. Senbrook.”

“Did Seymour, that fellow with the wide hips, ever have success with women?  How fat he has grown!”

“Rather; [Footnote:  See A Modern Lover.] don’t you know his story?  He came up to London with a few pounds.  When we knew him first he was starving in Lambeth.  You remember, Thompson, the day he stood us a lunch?  He had just taken a decorative panel to a picture-dealer’s, for which he had received a few pounds, and he told us how he had met a lady (there’s the lady, the woman with the white hair, Mrs. Bentham) in the picture-dealer’s shop.  She fell in love with him and took him down to her country house to decorate it.  She sent him to Paris to study, and it was said employed a dealer for years to buy his pictures.”

“And he dropped her for Lady Helen?”

“Not exactly.  Lady Helen dragged him away from her.  He never seized or dropped anything.”

“Then what explanation do you give of his success?” said a young barrister.

“His manner was always gentle and insinuating.  Ladies found him pretty to look upon, and very soothing.  Mike is just the same; but of course Seymour never had any of Mike’s brilliancy or enthusiasm.”

“Do you know anything of the old gentleman—­Senbrook’s his name?”

“I have heard that those watery eyes of his were once of entrancing violet hue, and I believe he was wildly enthusiastic in his love.  His life has been closely connected with mine.”

“I didn’t know you knew him.”