“Oh, well, do you suppose Kit thinks of her?” Helen asked, lightly. “It strikes me that it is only that she is here, and nobody else is, most of the time. There must be lots of pretty girls in a place this size, but this little brown thing is new. I suppose she must have brains, for Richard Latham finds her the greatest help; he spoke of her as marvellously perceptive, says her criticisms are a great help to him. But Kit has been drawn to her simply because--he is! That’s the only reason it ever happens, of course! And I don’t imagine he has thought about her; not actual, appraising thoughts. She is essentially feminine. I am dead sure he is attracted to her, but I’m also sure he isn’t analyzing himself, nor her, and it ought to be possible to divert his attention. Have a chocolate?” Helen extended her box. Miss Carrington accepted a chocolate with a twinkle in her eye and a laugh that was not wholly flattering to her guest. Helen’s embroidered robe had fallen to the floor on each side of her; her white skin gleamed above and through the thin crêpe and lace of her underclothing; her white, lace-trimmed skirt was drawn tight above her knees as she sat back in the chair; her thin, lustrous silk stocking outlined the beautiful curve of her leg. “If Kit could see you now he might be diverted,” said Miss Carrington. In her youth, with girls of her own age, she had never been so unreserved. “Call him in,” suggested Helen. “I’ll tell you in confidence, Miss Carrington, that I never found a trusting youth hard to divert, if I went about it.” “What did Thackeray say? That any woman could marry any man if she had sufficient opportunity and had not a positive hump? Something like that in _Vanity Fair_.” “Anticipating G.B.S.? I remember Shaw better than Thackeray. I read _Vanity Fair_ when I was about fourteen. Of course everyone admits that the woman chooses, but how about two women choosing the same man, each with the ‛sufficient opportunity?’ Then it does seem as though the man cast the deciding vote, though that would be only another way of saying that one woman had the stronger attraction. I never heard that threshed out. It’s interesting, opens out vistas. The only thing I’ve heard that might bear on it is that once seven women laid hold of one man. I don’t know what came of that. I haven’t read the Book that’s in much, not even at fourteen!” Helen laughed, throwing herself back and crossing her ankle on her knee as if she had been a man. Miss Carrington did not smile. Her brow contracted slightly, and her eyes did not applaud Helen. “You funny old dear!” Helen cried. “When you are so emancipated, boast of your modernity, read the books, novels and philosophy, love the plays you do, why do you suppose you are half-scared of me at times? And you are. I jar you.”