Mrs. Delville's voice was not pretty, her carriage was even less lovely, and her raiment was strikingly neglected. All these things Mrs. Mallowe noticed over the top of a magazine. “Now what is there in her?” said Mrs. Hauksbee. “Do you see what I meant about the clothes falling off? If I were a man I would perish sooner than be seen with that rag-bag. And yet, she has good eyes, but--oh!” “What is it?” “She doesn't know how to use them! On my Honor, she does not. Look! Oh look! Untidiness I can endure, but ignorance never! The woman's a fool.” “H'sh! She'll hear you.” “All the women in Simla are fools. She'll think I mean some one else. Now she's going out. What a thoroughly objectionable couple she and The Dancing Master make! Which reminds me. Do you suppose they'll ever dance together?” “Wait and see. I don't envy her the conversation of The Dancing Master--loathly man. His wife ought to be up here before long.” “Do you know anything about him?” “Only what he told me. It may be all a fiction. He married a girl bred in the country, I think, and, being an honorable, chivalrous soul, told me that he repented his bargain and sent her to her mother as often as possible--a person who has lived in the Doon since the memory of man and goes to Mussoorie when other people go Home. The wife is with her at present. So he says.” 'Babies?' “One only, but he talks of his wife in a revolting way. I hated him for it. He thought he was being epigrammatic and brilliant.” “That is a vice peculiar to men. I dislike him because he is generally in the wake of some girl, disappointing the Eligibles. He will persecute May Holt no more, unless I am much mistaken.” “No. I think Mrs. Delville may occupy his attention for a while.” “Do you suppose she knows that he is the head of a family?” “Not from his lips. He swore me to eternal secrecy. Wherefore I tell you. Don't you know that type of man?” “Not intimately, thank goodness! As a general rule, when a man begins to abuse his wife to me, I find that the Lord gives me wherewith to answer him according to his folly; and we part with a coolness between us. I laugh.” “I'm different. I've no sense of humor.” “Cultivate it, then. It has been my mainstay for more years than I care to think about. A well-educated sense of Humor will save a woman when Religion, Training, and Home influences fail; and we may all need salvation sometimes.” “Do you suppose that the Delville woman has humor?” “Her dress betrays her. How can a Thing who wears her supple'ment under her left arm have any notion of the fitness of things--much less their folly? If she discards The Dancing Master after having once seen him dance, I may respect her, Otherwise-- “But are we not both assuming a great deal too much, dear? You saw the woman at Peliti's--half an hour later you saw her walking with The Dancing Master--an hour later you met her here at the Library.” “Still with The Dancing Master, remember.”