Will and I returned to London by train. Phyllida was in the hall, reading the telegram, as I appeared. "It nearly came off," she said. "I'm sorry--for your sake--that you've had a disappointment. Time, you will find, works wonders; and some day, perhaps, you will be more grateful than I can expect to find you now. If I were you, I would go right away..." What she _intended_ to convey I have no more idea than the man in the moon... The night before, her meaning was _never_ in doubt; and I am waiting for her to put it into words, to charge Will or me or both of us with deliberately damaging our car... But you will see that anything she says in her present state, poor child, must be accepted with charitable reserve. IV LADY ANN SPENWORTH IS CONTENT WITH A LITTLE MUSIC _Lady Ann_ (_to a friend of proved discretion_): I am easily satisfied, I ask for nothing better than a little music after dinner. If only the rising generation were _rather_ less self-conscious... When I was a girl, it was a law of the Medes and Persians that, if any one asked us to play or sing, we at _once_ complied. None of this modern absurdity of not playing in public, insisting on the hush of the grave, looking round the room first to see if by chance there is some great _maestro_ present... When I tell you that I once sang before Jenny Lind, being too young and ignorant to know who she was... And no one could have been sweeter... I am not a musician in any sense of the word. (I am almost tempted to add: "Thank goodness!") When one sees and hears the devotees at Covent Garden, talking a language of their own which I am quite sure half of them don't understand, ready to set one right in a moment if one _presumes_ to offer an opinion... If any one said to me: "I want to be a social success and I don't know how to begin," I should answer: "Learn the musical jargon and use it _rudely_, especially to people who for one reason or another have not had to _fight_ their way into any little _niche_ that they may occupy." I won't mention names... But I see you have guessed! And do you not agree? That man, for all his millions, would be received _nowhere_ but for his alleged love of music; but take a double box at the opera, go every night, allow yourself to be seen at all the concerts, give immense parties of your own, support and bring out three new geniuses a month--everything is forgiven you!