Jessica waved airily to Hugh, blew a kiss to the face in the opposite house, drew in her head and shut the window. "It's Hugh, Mother," she said as if that explained the whole situation, "he's down below with two important parcels from two important people." "Well, that makes it worse," said Mrs. Deane severely, "you were hanging half out of the window and all the top of your nightgown is transparent lace. Really I feel quite cross with you both." "Don't be cross, darling," implored Jessica. "My trousseau nighties are far more indecent than this, and look, I'll put on a dressing-gown before he comes up." "He is certainly not coming up, Jessica. It would be most unsuitable." Jessica flung her arms round her mother's neck and kissed her. "Very well, darling," she said, "We won't outrage you any more; he shan't come up; I'll go down to him instead." Laughing, she snatched up her dressing-gown and ran out of the room and downstairs, her bare feet flashing white over the green carpet. Mrs. Deane laughed reluctantly. "I'm perfectly helpless with Hugh and Jessica," she said, "It's no use hoping for any sense from either of them. Jessica is like a child; she's quite fey with excitement." "It's really all right Mother," Drusilla soothed her. "She's frightfully happy and they do suit each other well. I honestly think Hugh understands her perfectly." "Yes, I feel that too," said Mrs. Deane, going out on to the landing, "It's very satisfactory because Jessica _is_ so temperamental." She leaned over the banisters and then turned smiling to Drusilla. "Just look at them on the landing; they wouldn't mind if the servants and the caterers and all the furniture men were drawn up in rows to look at them." Quickly sensitive to the watching eyes above, Hugh looked up. "I say, Mrs. Deane," he said apologetically, "I know I oughtn't to be here, but Mother sent me round with a couple of presents, and now I am here I must talk to Jessica for a minute." "Yes, of course, my dear," agreed Mrs. Deane, entirely forgetting her conventional qualms, "go into my sitting-room; it's the only room in the house that isn't upside-down. But really you can only have ten minutes and then Jessica must come upstairs." She turned to Drusilla. "Do go down and talk to your father, dearest. The servants have chased him from room to room, and now he's pacing round the billiard table in a terrible state of nerves. He ought to have gone to his office; it would have been much more sensible, but he had a feeling that Jessica might want him." "All right, Mother; what are you going to do?" "I'm just going to see that all her things are properly packed. But you know, Drusilla, I do not think she should have said her nightgowns were indecent." "My dear Mother," said Drusilla decisively, going downstairs, "if you take seriously any one thing Jessica may say to-day you will forfeit all my respect and admiration."