“But she had brought that to a fine art even as a schoolgirl,” Cecily remarked. “Tell me about her. We left school the same term, I remember. Is she as pretty as ever?” She spoke with animation, obviously glad of a topic which drew conversation away from personal matters. “Pretty?--yes, in a floppy fashion.” Cecily laughed. “Oh, she still flops? She used to be a most intense young woman. When she asked you to pass the salt at dinner, you felt inclined to burst into tears. She was High Church when I knew her, but that was early in her career.” “Oh, yes, there’s been Rationalism since then, and Socialism, and Vegetarianism, and Theosophy, and what not. Just now it’s Sandals and the Simple Life, whatever that may mean. It seems to cover a multitude of complexities.” “Does she still yearn?” “Oh, horribly! She begins at breakfast-time, I’m sure. She’s doing miniatures and mystic drawings now.” “And mouse-traps, and moonshine, and everything else that begins with an _M_? It sounds like _Alice in Wonderland_. Go on. I’m awfully interested to hear of her again. Even as a schoolgirl Philippa posed more than any other human being I’ve ever met.” “She has a studio in Fulham somewhere,” Mrs. Summers continued. “I happened to be quite close to it when I met her, and she asked me to come in to tea. _She_ had grape-nuts and plasmon. It’s astonishing what lurid views of life can be nourished upon this apparently mild diet,” she added, reflectively. “Are Philippa’s views lurid?” asked Cecily. “Oh, my uninstructed married ignorance is to blame, of course!” declared Mrs. Summers, with a meek expression. “What did she say?” “A great many things--most of them quite unfit for publication. But the latest and simplest gospel, according to Burton, appears to be, ‘Down with the proprietary view of marriage.’” Cecily leaned back against her cushions. “Ah!” she said. “Yes,” continued Mrs. Summers, meditatively, “there should be room in life for frank, free comradeship--_camaraderie_ was, I think, the word--between husbands and ladies who are living the Simple Life. Room for beautiful, breezy, ennobling friendships, untrammelled by vulgar jealousy on the part of the wife.” “I see,” returned Cecily. “And is the wife to have beautiful, breezy friendships too?” “Oh, yes! Liberty, Fraternity (presumably), and Equality, of course.” Cecily was silent a moment. “And you don’t believe in that kind of thing?” she asked. Mrs. Summers shrugged her shoulders. “My dear, I haven’t lived the Simple Life,” she returned, dryly. “Some more tea?” Cecily suggested. “Well, a complicated biscuit, then? I’m afraid I haven’t any plasmon in the house. I wonder now whether a woman like Philippa Burton is more of a hypocrite or a self-deceiver?” she added, thoughtfully, after a few moments. “About her theories, you mean?” “Or her practices. A woman seldom has a theory without a concrete example to illustrate it. Philippa has a concrete example, of course?”