Vi came to me just as I was starting. I had made no secret of my engagement. She had not commented on it till then. I thought I had seldom seen her look better. She is a willowy slip of a girl, with about her that air of the thoroughbred which, nowadays, is as great a distinction as a woman can have. She was born to be a great lady; the Howarth women always have been: yet, with it all, she is just a girl. Her chief fault is a proneness to impetuous speech. But that is a quality of youth. She let fly at me at once. 'Douglas, why hasn't Lady Desmond invited me?' 'My dear Vi, how can I tell you?' 'I know. And so do you.' 'I assure you that I do not know why Lady Desmond has not invited you.' 'Then I'll tell you. She has not invited me because it is quite likely that she never means to invite me again. She intends to wash her hands of me entirely. I shouldn't be surprised if she cuts me dead. She wants Reggie to marry Mary Magruder.' I said nothing. This was clearly a case in which silence was golden. 'I have told him he may.' 'I should have expected you to do no less.' 'He says he won't.' 'As matters are likely to turn out, that is a pity.' 'Douglas!--What do you mean?' 'Reggie is in a bad way. I'm afraid that before long he'll be in a worse.' 'How about you? Don't you stand or fall together?' 'Just so. That is it. It's because my hours are numbered that I say it's a pity. If he were to marry Mary Magruder then you might marry her masculine equivalent. You know as well as I do that he is to be found.' I was thinking of George Charteris. An extra shade of colour came into her cheeks, just to show she knew it. 'Douglas, are you trying to be humorous?' 'Not at all. My dear Vi, I'll be plain with you. I've reason to believe that before very long both Reggie and I may come a cropper. My very earnest advice to both of you is that you agree to treat the past as past, and try to retrieve your positions while there still is time.' She eyed me; reading on my face that I meant what I said. 'You can tell Reggie from me that I think it would be better that he should marry Mary Magruder as soon as he possibly can. We all know that she's willing enough. You may add, if you like, that I will never marry him, if things are going to be as you say they are.' 'And you?' 'I shall never marry any one but him. Please, Douglas, don't worry me to do so. You know that is so. But then I'm not one of those girls to whom marriage is all in all.' I knew that, if that was not a falsehood, it was at least an evasion of the truth; for I was aware that, to her, happiness meant being Reggie Sherrington's wife. She asked, as I was leaving the room. 'How about Edith?'