“Prosit!” responded the Baron, enthusiastically. “You know ze Deutsch, sare?”
“I am safer in English, I confess.”
“Ach, das ist goot, I vant for to practeese. Ve vill talk English.”
“With all my heart,” said the stranger. “I, too, am alone, and I hold myself more than fortunate in making your acquaintance. It’s a devilish dull world when one can’t share a bottle—or a brace of them, for the matter of that.”
“You know London?” asked the Baron.
“I used to, and I daresay my memory will revive.”
“I know it not, pairhaps you can inform. I haf gom, as I say, to-day.”
“With pleasure,” said the stranger, readily. “In fact, if you are ever disengaged I may possibly be able to act as showman.”
“Showman!” roared the Baron, thinking he had discovered a jest. “Ha, ha, ha! Goot, zehr goot!”
The other looked a trifle astonished for an instant, [pg 70] and then as he sipped his champagne an expression of intense satisfaction came over his face.