"Do you care to dance or shall we go outside and talk?"
She smiled at him. "Both, may we not? You dear, discreet person, when I think of the strange places where I have danced with you—Perhaps it is better not to remember!"
They moved away to the music and later on found their way into the garden. The Comtesse was a little thoughtful.
"You are a great friend of Anna's, are you not?" she enquired.
"We are engaged to be married," he answered simply.
She made a little grimace.
"Ah!" she sighed, "you nice men, it comes to you all. You amuse yourselves with us for a time, and then the real feeling comes, and where are we? But it is queer, too," she went on thoughtfully, "that Anna should marry an Englishman, especially just now."
"Why 'especially just now'?"
The Comtesse evaded the question.
"Anna seemed always," she said, "to prefer the men of her own country. Oh, what music! Shall we have one turn more, Mr. Francis Norgate? It is the waltz they played—but who could expect a man to remember!"