"Is this your first visit to America?" she asked.
"I was once in Canada," I answered. "I have never been in the States."
She smiled at me a little curiously. All the time I felt somehow that she was taking very careful note of my answers.
"We say in my country, you know," she remarked, "that you Englishmen come to us for one of two things only—sport or a wife!"
"I hope to get some of the former, at any rate," I answered. "As for the latter!"
"Well?"
"I have always thought of myself as a bachelor," I said; "but one's good fortune comes sometimes when one least expects it."
I looked across at Adèle, and Mrs. Van Reinberg followed the direction of my eyes. She laughed shrilly, but she did not seem displeased.
"If you Englishmen only made as good husbands as you do acquaintances," she said, "I should settle down in London with my girls and study matchmaking. I am afraid, though, that you have your drawbacks."
"Tell me what they are," I begged, "and I will do my best to prove myself an exception."