"I'm too old to get rid of bad habits, chérie," said her godmother.
"And we had better go down. By the way, what is Ben coming as?"
"I really don't know," came the muffled reply from behind the yashmak, "if he comes at all."
As Cairo entire had accepted the invitation, the place was packed, but nowhere was the crowd so suffocating as round the entrance to the Winter Garden.
"Per-fect-ly wonderful," gasped a rotund Ouled Nail to a masked dancer of the same sex and size. "He told me about that terrible time when I lost so much at bridge—you remember, dear, when I had to—er—to raise money on my diamonds. How could he have seen it in my hand?"
He hadn't; he had been a guest at Hurdley Castle with her.
"What's he like?"
"Oh, I couldn't see his face, on account of the handkerchief thing, but I think he's quite common; his clothes are quite poor. I believe he is one of the waiters dressed up. I seem to recognise his voice. Have you long to wait?"
"I'm twenty-fifth down the list. Who's in now?"
"Some woman in black. There are four of them, and I can't tell t'other from which."
The hand of the woman who was twenty-fifth down the list was never told.