"I've no hospitality to spare for a girl of twenty-two at this hour of the night."
She stretched out her arm to him. In observing the beauty of her slender, long fingers and the whiteness of her arm against the long fringe of the shawl, Eric forgot his guard. She twitched the cigarette from his lips and laughed like a child, as she blew out a cloud of smoke. Cigarette, shawl and manner suddenly reminded him of Carmen.
"You're so conventional," she sighed.
Eric became suddenly irritable.
"Lady Barbara, you're behaving idiotically!" he cried. "I know you'd do anything for a new sensation, but I'm not going to help. Possibly I'm old-fashioned. If you think——"
"I'm so thirsty," she interrupted. "Have you any soda-water?"
"You're sure to find plenty in Berkeley Square."
"But you're afraid to give me any, afraid of being compromised?"
"I've too many things to be afraid of without bothering about that. Lady Barbara, you've several brothers, I've one sister. If one of your brothers saw fit to invite my sister to a bachelor flat——"
"But you haven't invited me!"