She rubbed her eyes.
"Oh! don't do that," said the man.
She laughed. "I was trying to wake up," she said.
"Don't wake up. But as we now know one another so well shall we say what our names are?"
"Well, your lordship," said the girl, a little timidly, "my name is Appleby—Marion Appleby."
"Not 'your lordship'; Lord Alcester, please."
Presently she had recovered from the shock of the introduction, and was eating iced Cantaloup melon. She looked pleased with the world. She tasted everything, and drank a very little champagne.
His lordship dined principally on dry toast and old brandy. He was evidently well known and appreciated in the restaurant.
"Tell me all about yourself," he said to her. "What is your ordinary day like?"
"That is what I'd like to forget just now," she said. "We live in Fulham, and it's a big family. Father's a very highly-educated man and speaks three languages. He is a clerk in a very good position; but still, you see, there are so many of us, and mamma's health isn't good. I am up early every morning seeing to the children, and there is my own work all day, and those workrooms are awful in the summer; then there is the walk back, or sometimes a 'bus if I am very tired, and after that there is always something to do about the house before I go to bed."