How wonderfully well Mrs.Benedek is looking, isn't she!" Baring withdrew his admiring eyes from her vicinity.
"Prettiest and smartest woman in London," he declared.
"By-the-by, is she English ?" Norgate asked.
"A mixture of French, Italian, and German, I believe," Baring replied.
"Her husband is Benedek the painter, you know." "I've heard of him," Norgate assented.

"What are you doing now ?" "I've had a job up in town for a week or so, at the Admiralty," Baring explained.

"We are examining the plans of a new--but you wouldn't be interested in that." "I'm interested in anything naval," Norgate assured him.
"In any case, it isn't my job to talk about it," Baring continued apologetically.

"We've just got a lot of fresh regulations out.

Any one would think we were going to war to-morrow." "I suppose war isn't such an impossible event," Norgate remarked.