"He seemed quite used to it, sir."
"I haven't a doubt of it. And he never suggested you should play?"
"On the contrary, he never ceased to warn me against it. So did Mme Beteta----"
"Mme Beteta!" And the Colonel's cigar hung fire in midair, and he sat staring at Jim as if he had called up a ghost.
"The dancer, you know. She has been awfully kind to me. Did you know her too, sir?" asked innocent Jim.
"How did you come to make her acquaintance?" asked his father, with quite a change of tone, and an intentness that struck even Jim.
"We had gone to see her dance----"
"Both of you?"
"Charlie Denham and I. And Lord Deseret saw us and sent for us to his box, and at the interval he offered to take us round."
"Deseret?" And he said something under his breath in French which they did not catch. "Well--and how did she receive you?"