"Oh, I'm devoted to Phyllida," he answered. "_Then_," I said, "you'd cut your hand off before you did anything to make people talk about her." And then I rehearsed these dinners and plays... "It's not my business," I said. "Phyllida regards me as a lodging-house keeper, but, if your intentions are honourable, I think you should make them known to my brother, Lord Brackenbury." .. Well, then he became nervous and sentimental. He wouldn't compromise Phyllida for the world; he'd every intention of speaking to Brackenbury when the time came, but as long as he was living on his pay and the war went on... _You_ can imagine it. He was quite sincere. I told you I liked him; the only thing was that I didn't think him quite suitable for Phyllida. Upbringing, _milieu_... He was no fool; I felt he'd see it for himself before he'd been at the Hall half an hour... To cut a long story short, I made him promise to hold no more communication with the child until he'd seen Brackenbury; and I told my brother to invite him there for a weekend. I didn't see very much of what happened, as I left the young people to themselves; but Will entirely bore out the vague, intangible feeling... Poor Colonel Butler _wasn't_ at home; he made my boy's life a burden for days beforehand, asking what clothes he should take, and, when they were there, it was "I've been away so much that I don't know what the tariff is since the war: if I give ten shillings to the man who looks after me, how much ought I to give the butler?" ... Things I should have thought a man knew without asking. Will was really rather naughty about it... Brackenbury didn't see anything amiss. One's standard changes when one has done that sort of thing oneself. As I always said, "If you don't absorb her, she'll absorb you." And so it's proved. Ruth, of course, saw only the _romance_ of it all. Goodness me, unless we're all twins, _some_ one has to be the youngest colonel in the army... I don't know what people mean nowadays, when they talk about "romance." .. Brackenbury and the whole family made the absurdest fuss--well, I won't say that, because I liked young Butler; they made a great fuss. Even my nephew Culroyd, who's in the Coldstream, was quite affable; "eating out of his hand" was Will's phrase. _So_ descriptive, I thought; Will has an extraordinary knack of hitting people off...