"And so," she said lazily, "to-morrow is the Duke's bean-feast. It's no end of a way, isn't it? How do we go?" "Martin has engaged a car. Several neighbours wanted us to share, and it was really quite a blessing to be able to refuse. Last year we went with the Morlands, and they stuck to us like glue to the bitter end. This time we shall be free." "We three, and a second man. Who is the second man?" "We three, and _no_ other man!" Grizel dropped her hands on to the table, and stared with distended eyes. "But, my child, how absurd. I'm the most unexacting of critters but I make it a principle, never to share a man! There _must_ be an odd bachelor in the neighbourhood who'd be glad of a lift! A presentable, flirtable creature to make up the four!" The youthful parlour-maid jerked at the sound of that second adjective, and scurried from the room, soup plates in hand, leaving Katrine to whisper hasty reprisals. "Grizel, please! Wait until afterwards. It's a young girl I am training. She belongs to the Y.W.C.A." Grizel's stare changed to a smile. "I don't object, dear. I really don't. So long as she's pleased, I assure you I won't let it make _any_ difference!" "But that's just what I want it to do! Do please be sensible until dinner is over, and for mercy's sake don't talk about flirts. She'll be so shocked." "Then she'll be the first Y.W. I've ever met who _was_. And I don't believe she will, neither. There's a tilt to her cap--" The door opened to admit the Y.W., bearing in her hands the fish, and on her face that expression of concentrated vacuity which denotes acute curiosity. Every householder has suffered such moments, and knows by experience the painful pause which ensues before one of the diners bursts vivaciously into impersonalities, but to-day there was no pause. Grizel was too nimble-witted to permit such discomfiture. There was not the slightest break in the continuity of her speech, her words flowed on in a smooth unbroken stream. "--The which I take to typify a certain temperamental tendency towards the ornate, coupled with a desire to please, and be appreciated by those whom Providence has appointed lords among us, against which tendency all the restrictions of that admirable society--" "Grizel! Idiot! Eat your fish. You talk too much!" Martin had burst into a roar of laughter, in which Katrine perforce was obliged to join. The Y.W. marched stolidly round the table. She was by no means so dense as she appeared, was perfectly aware that the visitor had been reproved in her absence, and suspected a personal application in the long-winded speech. She disappeared in search of sauce, and to report the progress of events to the eager cook. "I'll make a compact with you," whispered Grizel eagerly. "I'll talk like a tract to the end of my stay, if you can induce her _not_ to puff down my back! Principles I respect, but draughts I abhor. Just make it perfectly clear!" ...