‘I must take her abroad, I suppose. Love is like bronchitis, a thorough change is the only cure.’ At this moment Mr. Travers was announced. ‘I must apologise for this untimely call; but I have just been at the club, and Lord Snordenham was mentioning that he must send round to tell you that his coach had to start half an hour earlier for Hurlingham to-morrow than was arranged. I said I should be passing your door, and he commissioned me to deliver the message.’ ‘Thank you very much. You are to be one of us, then?’ ‘I have that honour.’ ‘May I introduce you to my daughter, Lady Maisy Potter. She has just returned from her honeymoon.’ ‘O mamma, don’t give such a wrong impression! I must tell you, Mr. Travers, my honeymoon lasted six months,’ she said, turning to him with an engaging smile. ‘It ought to last for ever,’ he said, bowing. ‘At any rate it has agreed with you splendidly.’ ‘Oh, please don’t say that; I know I am terribly sunburnt. It is so dreadful to come to London looking so healthy, late in the season, isn’t it?’ ‘I am afraid my tastes are not sufficiently æsthetic to allow me to appreciate a sickly style of beauty.’ ‘I am so glad to hear you say that. It is exactly what I think myself; only it doesn’t do nowadays to say anything you think, or one might be taken for one of those dreadful advanced people that are always clamouring for free thought, and free speech, and free everything. I feel it so very necessary to keep on thinking just what is right and proper. Our responsibilities as leaders of thought are so grave. For we are the leaders of thought, are we not, Mr. Travers?’ ‘After a certain point necessarily so. Progress is made in circles; and if you stand still long enough you will find yourself in the van.’ ‘But,’ said Lady Kirkdale, ‘suppose it doesn’t come back to the same point exactly, but goes onward in a spiral.’ ‘That’s the whole problem of life. Is it a circle or a spiral?’ said Travers. ‘If it’s the latter I am sorry for all of us.’ ‘Oh, don’t be afraid, mamma, life is very nice as it is. We’ll take it for granted it’s a circle, and sit still and not bother ourselves. Spirals are such uncomfortable-looking things.’ The carriage was announced, and Lady Kirkdale asked Travers to drive with them. He did so, sitting next to Geraldine and opposite Maisy. They dropped Maisy at the hotel in Albemarle Street she and Mr. Potter were staying at. Travers of course escorted her in, and as they parted she hoped he would accept the invitation to come to Cowes that her husband was going to send him for the yacht-week. When he re-entered the carriage he said to Lady Geraldine, ‘I imagined your sisters were all out of town.’ ‘So they were when we last spoke of them, but Maisy and Mr. Potter returned last month.’ ‘Ah, I met Mr. Potter at your dinner-party on Thursday, of course. I didn’t know he was a relation.’