'Most people do so. We came here to be out of the way of people one knows and is sure to meet everywhere in more beaten tracks; also to get rid of the tedium of visiting ambassadors, and undergoing their receptions—one of the greatest bores when abroad.'
She evidently knew London well. In the course of conversation they discovered that several of their acquaintances were mutual, and Chute began to wonder who she was, and became interested in her, in spite of his general indifference.
She seemed to be 'up to' a good deal, too; acknowledged that she made quite a little book on the Derby and Ascot—was above taking a bet on a favourite in kid gloves only; and told in the prettiest way how skilfully, and with a little spice of naughtiness, she had, on more than one occasion, learned the secrets of the stables, and of the trials in the early morning gallops; and actually how she had persuaded people to lay five to one, when the printed lists said 'evens,' to square herself in the end; and then she laughed, and said it was so odd to have her husband travelling in the next carriage, and thus quite separated from her; but at Buchen she would rejoin him.
'Do you travel much?' she asked, after a pause.
'Well; yes.'
'Who does not nowadays!'
'My profession——'
'The army?'
'Yes; I have just returned from India.'
'To one who has seen all the wonders and marvels there—the rock-hewn temples, the marble palaces and mosques, the vast plains and mighty mountains of India—how tame you must think these level landscapes and little German villages!'