"After dinner we went into the smoking-room, which was nearly empty, as most of the members had left London. There were only two other occupants, and they were at the far end of the apartment. Practically, we had the place to ourselves.
"He urged me strongly to take a trip over to Paris as his guest. I should have loved to go, but the wrench had to be made some time, it might as well be made now. Besides, I was heavily in debt, for a poor man, and I had not the cash to purchase the necessary outfit for such a trip.
"He would not accept my first refusal, but tried to persuade me into reconsidering. When I still persisted, he bluntly asked me my reasons.
"As I have said, I was very depressed that night at the prospect of all I was saying goodbye to. This mood was responsible for my blurting out a great portion of the absolute truth.
"I explained to him that I had already accepted too much of his hospitality, which my circumstances did not enable me to return, that I could no longer take advantage of his generosity.
"After this avowal, he did not speak for some little time, all the while regarding me with an intense gaze that embarrassed me very much.
"'Thanks for telling me the truth,' he said at length. 'Your confidence is quite safe with me.' He added after a pause, 'So you are a poor man, in spite of the fact that your appearance does not suggest the fact. well, I may tell you that from the first moment I made your acquaintance I was pretty certain you were.'
"I told him a little more. 'I am so poor,' I said frankly, 'that I cannot afford to keep up appearances any longer. In a few days I shall leave a world I ought never to have entered. Anyway, it is the last time I shall dine with you, and I don't suppose we shall ever meet again, unless we run across each other by chance in a very different sphere.'"
"'You have absolutely made up your mind to do this, for the reasons you have given?' he asked presently.
"'Absolutely,' I replied. 'I may say it is Hobson's choice. I am heavily in debt. If I cut my wants down to next to nothing, it will take me a year to pay off what I owe.' I laughed bitterly--'Unless I turned thief, I could not possibly go on.'
"'I don't want to force your confidence,' was Lord Frederick's next remark. 'But having had a taste of this rather glittering world, I presume you will leave it with considerable regret.'