. I
had not noticed him taking off his coat. Blunt had unbuttoned his shabby jacket,
exposing a lot of starched shirt-front with the white tie under his dark shaved
chin. He had a strange air of insolence - or so it seemed to me. I addressed him
much louder than I intended really.
    »Did you know that extraordinary man?«
    »To know him personally one had to be either very distinguished or very
lucky. Mr. Mills here ...«
    »Yes, I have been lucky,« Mills struck in. »It was my cousin who was
distinguished. That's how I managed to enter his house in Paris - it was called
the Pavilion - twice.«
    »And saw Doña Rita twice, too?« asked Blunt with an indefinite smile and a
marked emphasis. Mills was also emphatic in his reply but with a serious face.
    »I am not an easy enthusiast where women are concerned, but she was without
doubt the most admirable find of his amongst all the priceless items he had
accumulated in that house - the most admirable. ...«
    »Ah! But, you see, of all the objects there she was the only one that was
alive,« pointed out Blunt with the slightest possible flavour of sarcasm.
    »Immensely so,« affirmed Mills. »Not because she was restless, indeed she
hardly ever moved from that couch between the windows - you know.«
    »No. I don't know. I've never been in there,« announced Blunt with that
flash of white teeth so strangely without any character of its own that it was
merely disturbing.
    »But she radiated life,« continued Mills. »She had plenty of it, and it had
a quality. My cousin and Henry Allègre had a lot to say to each other and so I
was free to talk to her. At the second visit we were like old friends, which was
absurd considering that all the chances were that we would never meet again in
this world or in the next. I am not meddling with theology but it seems to me
that in the Elysian fields she'll have her place in a very special company.«
    All this in a sympathetic voice and in his unmoved manner. Blunt produced
another disturbing white flash and muttered:
    »I should say mixed.« Then louder: »As for instance ...«
    »As for instance Cleopatra,« answered Mills quietly. He added after a pause:
»Who was not exactly pretty.«
    »I should have thought rather a La