"I don't know why it didn't suit me; Lavinia is very like what I was at her age, and she looks so pretty in red; but Godfrey liked me best in green and blue, and I used to dress to please him." "I think you always look very nice in grey, and of course, as you say, it's a lovely background for your jewels," said Miss Dorset, whose sole conversational aim was to direct Mrs. Greene down pleasant paths and by-ways and prevent if possible any comparison between the empty present and the rich past. On this occasion she was fortunate. An expression of real pleasure lit up Mrs. Greene's faded eyes. She spoke with assurance. "You know, Miss Dorset, it's a long time since I wore my diamond necklace; in fact it's a long time since I went over my jewels at all. I think with the party coming off I'd really better look through them." "I'm sure it would be a good plan," agreed Miss Dorset. "Very well then, we'll go out now; I'm ready am I not? And this afternoon you'll open the safe and I'll go over all my things. Geoffrey did love to give me jewels. You know I used to be very dark, and he always thought them very becoming to me." "You'll be quite busy then," said Miss Dorset, relieved to think that the day promised to be a full and interesting one for Mrs. Greene; for once in a way there was a definite little plan for each of the yawning intervals between meals. To Miss Dorset each day presented itself as a problem in four sections: in each section some trivial interest or occupation had to be provided for old Mrs. Greene, whose mental outlook, through still vivid, could not avoid being impinged upon by her physical limitations. There was the long interval between getting dressed and lunch time which could only be comfortably filled by a walk. Miss Dorset registered an aggrieved resentment against Providence for any lapse from fine weather conditions between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Subconsciously she felt that it was Mrs. Greene's prerogative to enjoy the sun for these two hours. The shorter interval between lunch and tea was partially filled by a rest, and often by preparations for some visitor who was coming to tea, and whose visit involved for her punctilious hostess a change of dress and shawl. The hour after tea was often a difficult and irritable time, particularly in winter when the heavy curtains had to be drawn early and Mrs. Greene could not sit at her drawing-room window, gazing over the fields to the little larch wood that darkened and thickened as light faded out of the sky, and then magically thinned again till each twig was separate and visible in the clear darkness. Sometimes there was a library list to be made, or a parcel of library books to be opened, and to Miss Dorset at least, it was a matter of signal importance that the second post arrived at 5 o'clock. It might contain letters that would keep Mrs. Greene occupied for half an hour.