She looked over her shoulder and nodded. The maid looked at me out of her great black eyes, as though daring me to follow them, and, was it my fancy, or did that little morsel of canine absurdity really show me its white teeth on purpose? Anyhow, they strolled away, and left me there. I waited for Gilbert.
He reappeared in about five minutes, with a hateful smirk upon his well-cut but somewhat pasty features. I laid my hand upon his arm.
"Where did you meet her, Gilbert?" I asked. "Who is she? Where does she come from? How long have you known her?"
"Gently, my dear fellow!" he answered calmly. "I met her at Lady Tredwell's about a fortnight ago. I really know very little about her, except that she seems a charming young lady."
"Where does she come from?" I asked—"what country, I mean? She speaks like a foreigner!"
"Oh! she's American, of course," he told me—"a young American lady of fortune, I believe."
"American," I repeated vaguely, "are you sure?"
"Perfectly!" he answered.
"Any relatives here?" I asked.
"None that I know of," he admitted.