n it is at thirty-five. But beauties should
never live beyond fifty--at the very latest."

"Then you must commit suicide at that age."

"Thank you. The old women in hotels!"

She shivered, and it seemed to him that her body shook naturally, as if
it couldn't help shaking.

"But--remember--she'll come back with her sheaves!" she added, looking
at him. "And then the 'old guard' will fall upon her."

For a moment she looked cruel, and though he did not understand her
meaning Craven realized that she would not have much pity for Lady
Sellingworth in misfortune. But Lady Sellingworth was cruel, too, had
been cruel to him. And he saw humanity without tenderness, teeth and
claws at work, barbarity coming to its own through the varnish.

He only said:

"I may be very stupid, but I don't understand."

And then he changed the subject of conversation. Miss Van Tuyn became
gradually nicer to him, but he felt that she still cherished a faint
hostility to him. Perhaps she thought he regarded her as a substitute.
And was not that really the fact? He tried to sweep the hostility away.
He laid himself out to be charming to her. The Lady Sellingworth episode
was over. He would give himself to a different side of his nature,
a side to which Miss Van Tuyn appealed. She did not encourage him at
first, and he was driven to force the note slightly. When he went away
they had arranged to play golf together, to dine together one night
at the _Bella Napoli_. It was he who had suggested, even urged these
diversions. For she had almost made him plead to her, had seemed oddly
doubtful about seeing more of him in intimacy. And when he left her he
was half angry with himself for making such a fuss about trifles. But
the truth was--and perhaps she suspected it--that he was trying
to escape from depression, caused by a sense of injury, through an
adventure. He felt Miss Van Tuyn's great physical attraction, and just
then he wished that it would overwhelm him. If it did he would
soon cease from minding what Lady Sellingworth had done. A certain
recklessness possessed him.

He dined with a friend at the club and stayed there rather late. When he
was leaving about half past eleven Braybrooke dropped in after a
party, and he told Braybrooke of Lady Sellingworth's departure for the
Continent. The world's governess showed even more surprise than Miss
Van Tuyn had shown. He had had no idea that Adela Sellingworth was going
abroad. She must have dec