“And stay a bit?” she said, clutching at him. “Stay and talk to me?” “Yes, yes,” he humoured her. “About Madala?” He was very white. “About Madala. Anita, take her other arm. That’s the way.” They helped her out of the room, and we heard their slow progress up the stairs. It was the blonde lady who broke the silence with her tinkling laugh— “Poor dear Nita!” “Kent’s a good sort,” said Miss Howe. “What’s Hecuba to him now?” Mr. Flood’s smile glinted from one to another. “A very old friend,” said the blonde lady. “You heard what dear Nita said to him.” “‘Children together!’ I didn’t know that.” He was still smiling. “And they always kept in touch,” put in Miss Howe. “Trust Nita for that,” said the blonde lady. Miss Howe nodded. “She told me once that from the first she realized that he would do big things.” “So Nita kept in touch!” Mr. Flood laughed outright. “But it’s only the last few years that she’s been able to produce him at will, like a conjuror’s rabbit.” “Since Madala’s advent, you mean,” said the blonde lady. “‘Will you walk into my parlour?’ said Anita to the fly. ‘It’s a literary parlour——’” murmured Mr. Flood. And then—“No. Kent’s not likely to have walked in without a honey-pot in the parlour. Madala must have been useful.” “That’s what Miss Serle will never forgive her, _I_ think,” said the Baxter girl. “What?” “That she was useful. Do _you_ believe in the other man?” “The unknown influence?” His eyes narrowed. “H’m!” “And yet of course there’s been someone.” The Baxter girl never quite deserted Anita, even in her absence. The blonde lady nodded. “Of course. Nita’s always nearly right. The influence—the adventures—the _mariage de convenance_—she’s got it all so pat—and the man too. She knows well enough; yet she fights against it. She won’t have it. I wonder why. ‘Very old friends’ I suppose.” She laughed again. “But of course it was Kent. Can’t you see that’s why Nita hates her? What a _Life_ it will be! I just long for it to come out. Nita’s a comedy.” “A tragedy.” “Nita? My dear Lila! What do you mean?” “I’m only quoting,” said Miss Howe. And then—“But when she isn’t actually annoying me I think I agree.” “Who said it?” said the Baxter girl inquisitively. “Madala. It’s the only thing I’ve ever heard her say of Anita. She never discussed Anita. Now of Kent she would talk by the hour. Which proves to me, you know, that the affair with him didn’t go very deep. Nita quoted that description of Kent just now, but only so far as it served her. She carefully forgot how it goes on. Here, where is it? Ah—— He brooded like a lover over his colour-box, and as she watched him her thoughts flew to her own small brothers at home. Geoff with his steam-engine, Jimmy sorting stamps—there, there was to be found the same ruthlessness of absorption, achieving dignity by its sheer intensity. She smiled over him and them. “Keep your face still,” he ordered.