"I beg your pardon, I didn't see! It's awfully stupid of me; I'm always passing people like that." "You've returned, then! For good?" "Oh yes; we live in town, you know--in the suburbs, at least." "You told me," she smiled. "'Battersea.'" "So I did. 'Battersea' is Streatham, but that's a detail." The mechanicalness of his utterance passed, and animation leapt back in him as he recovered from his surprise. The sun was shining and her sequins were iridescent. She was wearing violets. His impression embraced the trifles with a confused sense that they made a delightful whole--the smart, smiling woman in the sunshine, the purple of the flowers, and the warmth of her familiar tones. "So you come to Victoria every day, and you haven't been to see me!" she said. "When did you leave Paris?" "I--I've done nothing. Of course you know _The World and his Wife_ is dead, Mrs. Deane-Pitt? When did I leave? Oh, soon after the funeral." "I trust you've recovered from the bereavement," she laughed. "Are you on anything here?" "Not yet. Editors are so blind to their own interests." "Well----!" She put out her hand again, and repeated her number. "When will you come in? I'm nearly always at home about five. Good-bye; I'm going to the Army and Navy, and I shall be late." Kent continued his way cheerfully. The brief interchange of conventionalities had diverted his thoughts, and his glimpse of this woman who took her debts with a shrug, and had candidly adapted her ideals to her requirements till the former had all gone, acted as a fillip to him. She typified success, of a kind, and in a minute he had seemed to acquire something of her own vigour. It made him happy, also, to observe that the manner of their parting had had no sequel; and, in recalling the mood in which he had walked through the Champs Elysées, he decided that he had been extremely stupid to attach so much importance to it. She was an agreeable woman towards whom his feeling was a friendship that he had once been in danger of exaggerating; he would certainly call upon her at the first opportunity! It was quite possible that she might be able to tell him something useful too.