"As you are still in mourning," corrected her visitor, politely.
"Certainly. You would not have me flaunting colours with poor dear Jim just dead. I want to be cheered up, and I ask you and Mr. Askew to cheer me."
"Oh! ah!" Aksakoff wrinkled his brow. "Mr. Askew goes to Paris, also?"
"He said something about it. Such a nuisance, seeing that he thinks--well, I told you."
"Madame, his thoughts are excusable. But M. Demetrius will be angered."
"What do you mean?" demanded Lady Jim, imperiously.
Aksakoff's patience was almost exhausted. "We spoke at Monte Carlo," he reminded her. "Surely we understand one another."
"Possibly you may. I am quite in the dark. Why should you couple my name with that of M. Demetrius?"
"Report says that he loves you."
"Oh--report!" She laughed, frankly amused. "If you believe reports----" Here a shrug and a contemptuous laugh. "Why, reports leave no one a shred of character. I quite expect that my enemies--Mrs. Penworthy, for one--will say that Mr. Askew followed me to Paris, for the purpose of marrying me at the British Embassy."