"But you have plenty of people who could come and see you?"
"Y—es. Still, there are evenings when there is no one."
"Well, you have got me now," said Miles consolingly. He was busy gazing out of the carriage window, and for a time the bustling, lighted streets occupied his whole attention. Nora made no attempt to distract him. She was not feeling very happy not as happy as she knew she ought to be—and the fact worried her. Presently they turned into a quiet street and Miles sank back with a sigh of satisfaction.
"It seems a lively enough sort of place," he said. "I expect you have a gay time, don't you?"
"I am very happy," said Nora, with unusual eagerness.
"Yes, of course, but I meant gay—dances and dinners and all that sort of thing. The pater ran into some fellow who had just come back from a trip to Berlin, and he said the officers had no end of a time—were treated like the lords of creation, in fact, especially if they had a bit of a title stuck on to their names. Wolff is a baron, isn't he?"
"Yes," said Nora abruptly.
"I thought so. Pater stuck him up a peg to this chap and said he was a count. Barons aren't much in Germany, though. They're as common as herrings."
"They don't think so," Nora protested, hot with annoyance. "They think a good deal of it."
"Yes—snobs. That's what this fellow said. However, I don't mind. The good time is the only thing I care about, and you seem to have that all right by your letters."