The latter was deep in discussion with Patricia, moving her hands in quick, vivacious gestures which clusters of opals made into flashes of blue fire. "But you must send to Hakodate for your furs," she was saying. "I will give you the address of my man there. You should get them now, not wait till fall, when the tourists have bought all the best."
"I'm dying for an ermine stole."
"Oh, my dear, not ermine! Get sables. One can be so insulting in sables!"
Barbara laughed with the rest. "What a nice lot you are," she said, "all knowing each other, all friendly. I thought diplomatists were always poring over international law books and drawing up musty treaties."
"It's not all cakes and ale," he asserted. "I worked till three this morning on a cipher telegram."
"After the melodrama?"
"Ah, it was opera!" he protested. "It has left me memories of only flowers, and scents and music!"
"You made most of the music, if I remember rightly."
"How unkind! I could no more help it than fly."
"On your Glider?"