"Well, I wish you would tell me your secret." "My dear, there is none. Besides, another woman can so often put a man in a good temper, when his wife could not possibly." "That doesn't say much for matrimony." Mildred looked up a moment, and then fell to fingering her fan again. "Oh, matrimony is such an excellent institution that a few little disadvantages of that sort really don't weigh. But certainly what I say is true. And you know it is just the same with us. Jack can put me in a good temper when my dear Andrew would assuredly fare pretty badly if he tried." "I never quite knew why you married him." "Oh, for a variety of reasons. He was very rich, I liked him, he wanted to marry me. And we have been very happy. One can't look for perfection in one's husband any more than in one's own servants or one's horses. The point is that they should not have any vices, and on the whole suit you." "Is that the modern theory?" asked Marie. "No, I don't know that it is exclusively modern. But what's the matter, Marie? What was Jack in a bad temper about?" Marie frowned. "Jack was coarse. I don't see why I shouldn't tell you. Do you remember my going home with Jim two nights ago from your house, when I was going to see Blanche about the bazaar? Well, he hinted that I had not been to see her at all. Now, what are you to do when your husband behaves like that?" Mildred laughed. "Dear me! is that all? Men are coarse folk, you will not recognise that, and when they are in a bad temper they say all sorts of things they don't mean. Now, I can tell you how I should deal with that. I should simply have laughed in his face, laughed with a wide mouth. But as for letting it disturb my peace of mind-- You, too, of all people, who simply are the most enviable woman in London." "So you tell me," said Marie; "but I don't quite know why." "Oh, my dear, if it was not you I should think you were fishing for compliments-- Why? Because you have the brains to be sometimes amused and sometimes bored at what absorbs all of us; because you are young; because somehow or other you are _the_ person; because you make any woman standing near you look dowdy and coarse----" Marie laughed. "I am stifled in my own perfections," she said. "Let me get a breath of air." "Guardina is just going to oblige us with one," said Mildred. "She really is like the girl in the fairy stories out of whose mouth drop diamonds and pearls. I suppose she is paid at least a sovereign a note. How pleasant that must be! Look, there is poor Nellie Leighton standing close to her, as if she hoped to be able to pick some of them up. What a wonderful woman! Not a penny of any sort to bless herself with, an insatiable appetite for pleasure, and the most light-hearted and appreciative woman I know. She sees us; she is coming over here."