Nigel hesitated for a moment, a somewhat curious hesitation which he many times afterwards remembered.
"I am not very keen on restaurants for a week or two," he said doubtfully. "Besides, I had half promised to be at the club."
"Not to-day," Karschoff insisted. "To-day let us listen to the call of the world. Woman is at her loveliest in the spring. The Ritz Restaurant will look like a bouquet of flowers. Perhaps 'One for you and one for me.' At any rate, one is sure of an omelette one can eat."
The two men turned together towards Piccadilly.
CHAPTER IV
Luncheon at the Ritz was an almost unexpectedly pleasant meal. The two men sat at a table near the door and exchanged greetings with many acquaintances. Karschoff, who was in an unusually loquacious frame of mind, pointed out many of the habitués of the place to his companion.
"I am become a club and restaurant lounger in my old age," he declared, a little bitterly. "Almost a boulevardier. Still, what else is there for a man without a country to do?"
"You know everybody," Nigel replied, without reference to his companion's lament. "Tell me who the woman is who has just entered?"