“Indeed, Oliver!” “Rather. Hand it to a lady and ask her if it is hers. Gives you a sort of introduction, too.” Netherby Gomme stared aghast: “B-but, Oliver, surely one is introduced in society!” “Rather not--it ain’t form.” “Why?” “Oh, I don’t know; it’s the new hospitality. But about that scent, Netherby--let us try some on me, and I’ll see if it worries the mother. The father’ll soon be nasty about it if it’s bad form.” Gomme shook his head, and sighed heavily: “Ah, Oliver, one has to be very careful in one’s pose on entering a new world.” Noll nodded: “Rather!... Do you know, Netherby, it’s a rummy thing how one begins to wash one’s self and think about ornaments and things when one becomes a man, eh?” “A most rummy thing indeed, Noll.” Netherby Gomme sighed. Noll looked at him with interest: “It must be wonderful to feel famous,” he said. “It is,” said Gomme gloomily. “Wonderful.” “But I don’t see why you should be so beastly miserable about it, Netherby. It don’t hurt, does it?” “Not exactly, Noll.” The yellow-haired youth sighed. “I am only suffering from the mood of the time.... Pessimism is on the town.... A clerk with any claim to culture must affect Decadence this season--and it gives me the hump.” He coughed. “Causes me acute mental discomfort.” Noll snorted: “Then I should chuck it,” he said. “When I was a kid I used to worry if I were not the same as the other kids; but--hullo!” He looked up at the clock. “It seems to me it’s about time to go and get tea.” He winked an eye solemnly at Gomme, and whistled his way airily out of the office. The door swung open, revealing a dingy stair-landing, shut with a bang, and swallowed him. The sound of Noll’s retreating footsteps on the stair had scarce faded away into the distant echoes of the street, when the door that led to the editor’s room opened, and a well-groomed man of about thirty-five entered the office. Anthony Baddlesmere was a handsome, well-set-up fellow--indeed, it was as much from his father as from his mother that Noll inherited his good looks. He was handsome to the degree of beauty; and this it was, perhaps, which, in spite of the easy carriage of the body and the subtle air of good-breeding, gave the impression of some indecision of character in the man. Or it may have been that this indecision was increased by a certain embarrassment as he endeavoured to get a firm note into his voice: “Oh, Gomme--have you completed the dummy yet--for this week’s issue?” Gomme got up from his chair and searched for the dummy amongst the papers on Noll’s desk. But Anthony Baddlesmere had seated himself on the corner of the desk, and, fingering a paper-knife, he said: