She shrugged her shoulders.
"You know that people are talking about you in London?" she asked abruptly.
He looked a little startled.
"I know nothing of the sort," he replied. "I have scarcely looked at a newspaper for weeks. Kendricks is over here with some story—"
"Who is Kendricks?" she interrupted.
"A journalist, an old friend of mine. What he told me, though, I looked upon as simply a little more malice from my friend Carraby."
"Tell me exactly his news?"
"He told me," Julien continued, "that there is a good deal of unrest over in London concerning our relations with France. The absolute candor and completely good understanding which existed a short time ago seems to have become clouded. Carraby is trying to suggest in English circles that I have been using my influence over here against the present government. The absurd part of it is that although I have been in France for a month, I arrived in Paris only yesterday."
"I was not alluding to that at all," she said. "It is in the country places, at the by-elections, and twice in the House itself lately, that things have been said which point to a certain impatience at your having been dropped so completely. You know Brentwood?"
"A strong, firm man," Julien replied, "but scarcely a friend of mine."