"That's quite true," she said. "I don't seem to myself to be the same kind of person. I don't think the same way. Oh! please, it didn't take nearly all that money. Look, I have got it here somewhere." She fumbled under her cloak.
"Oh! please don't bother," said her companion. "You may want it later for something or other. See what I have been doing to fill in time."
He took from its box an old ivory fan exquisitely painted, and handed it to her.
"That fan," he said, "belonged once to a princess, a daughter of George the Third. She was his favourite daughter, and it was her death which finally dethroned his reason. Take it; you also are a princess to-night."
"I cannot thank you--I cannot even begin to thank you. It is like a most heavenly dream coming true."
"Pray don't speak of thanks. It is I who am indebted to you for being pleased. I have bought another little toy for you as well."
He opened a case, containing a necklace of pearls, a single row. Not of great size, but well matched and graduated.
"I am afraid," he said, "that this has no romantic history. The best I can imagine is that the diver who brought the pearls was snapped in two by a shark."
"The best?" she cried. "That is the worst! That is horrible! Oh! but what a lovely necklace!"
"Then," said the man, "he was not snapped in two by a shark. He amassed great wealth in the pearl fishery business, retired from it, married a wife, had seventeen children, and was very, very happy."
"To-night you have only to command. The poor man had but two. May I put the necklace on for you?"
She hesitated. After all, why be a fool? "Of course, if you like," she said.
He fastened the snap quickly and deftly. "That is the way pearls look best," he said.
She laughed. "I was trying to wake up," she said.
"Don't wake up. But as we now know one another so well shall we say what our names are?"
"Well, your lordship," said the girl, a little timidly, "my name is Appleby--Marion Appleby."
"Not 'your lordship'; Lord Alcester, please."
Presently she had recovered from the shock of the introduction, and was eating iced Cantaloup melon. She looked pleased with the world. She tasted everything, and drank a very little champagne.
His lordship dined principally on dry toast and old brandy. He was evidently well known and appreciated in the restaurant.