“She’s been kind enough to you,” replied Madge, somewhat irrelevantly. There was a note of irritation in her tone. “I suppose you know you are supremely beautiful. You seem so indifferent to it, I wonder sometimes if you do.” He kissed her, promising to take care of himself.!

A little laugh escaped her. “I wish you would come oftener,” he said. “Mary has taken such a liking to you. If you care to meet people, we can always whip up somebody of interest.”

She remembered, as she was taking her leave, what she had come for: which was to invite Joan to dinner on the following Friday. “I may not see you again before I go,” he said. “Look after Mary. I shall try to persuade her to go down to her aunt in Hampshire. It’s rather a bit of luck, as it turns out, the paper being finished with. I shouldn’t have quite known what to do.” “You see, dear, I began when I was young,” she explained; “and he has always seen me the same. I don’t think I could live like this.”