Princess Myakaya, sitting in the middle between the two groups, and listening to both, took part in the conversation first of one and then of the other.

" Three people have used that very phrase about Kaulbach to me today already, just as though they had made a compact about it.

And I can't see why they liked that remark so.

" The conversation was cut short by this observation, and a new subject had to be thought of again.

"Do tell me something amusing but not spiteful," said the ambassador's wife, a great proficient in the art of that elegant conversation called by the English, _small talk_.