“Do you know,” she said, “this afternoon I have had an idea?  Some day I hope so much that it may come true.  Do you mind if I tell it you?  It concerns yourself.”

“Tell me, of course,” he said.

“You have written so wonderfully of that terrible world beneath—­that world whose burden we would all give so much to lighten.  You have written so vividly that every one knows that you yourself have been there.  Presently—­not now, of course—­but some day I would have you write of life as we see it about us to-day—­of the world beautiful—­and I would have you illustrate it as one who has lived in it, drunk of its joys, even as one of its happiest children.  Think what a wealth of great experiences must lie between the two extremes!  It is what you would wish for—­you, to whom the study of your fellow-creatures is the chosen pursuit of life.”

He smiled at her thoughtfully.

“I do not know,” he replied, “but I should think very few in this world are ever permitted to pass behind both canopies.  To me it seems impossible that I should have ceased so suddenly to be a denizen of the one, and even more impossible that I should ever have caught a glimpse of the other.”

“You will not always say so,” she murmured.  “You have everything in your favour now—­youth, strength, experience, and reputation.”

“Even then,” he answered, “I doubt whether I still possess the capacity for happiness.  I feel at times as though what had gone before had frozen the blood in my veins.”

“Your friends” she said, “must make up to you for the past.  Forgetfulness is sometimes hardly won, but it is never an impossibility.”

“My friends?  My dear lady, I do not possess one.”

She raised her parasol.  Her wonderful eyes sought his, her delicately-gloved hand rested for a moment lightly upon his palm.

“And what am I?” she asked softly.

He was only human, and his heart beat the faster for that gentle touch and the gleam in her eyes.  She was so beautiful, so unlike any other woman with whom he had ever spoken.

“Have I any right to call you my friend?” he faltered.

“Have you any right,” she answered brightly, “to call me anything else?”

“I wonder what makes you so kind to me,” he said.

“I liked you from the moment you jumped into the railway carriage” she replied, “in those ridiculous clothes, and with a face like a ghost.  Then I liked your independence in refusing to come and be helped along, and since I have read your—­but we won’t talk about that, only if you have really no friends, let me be your first.”

No wonder his brain felt a little dizzy.  They were driving through the great squares now, and already he began to wonder with a dull regret how much longer it was to last.  Then at a corner they came face to face with Drexley.  He was walking moodily along, but at the sight of them he stopped short upon the pavement.  Emily de Reuss bowed and smiled.  Drexley returned the salute with a furious glance at her companion.  He felt like a man befooled.  Douglas, too, sat forward in the carriage, a bright spot of colour in his cheeks.