l balloon," suggested Rainham laughingly,
"and get a bird's-eye view of life?"

"Exactly; and drift about. Only then one would never get really
interested in anything or anybody. I should want someone else in the
balloon."

"You must take me," said Rainham, still smiling.

Mary looked at him quickly, and then turned away, shivering a
little.

"What nonsense we are talking!" she said suddenly. "And I'm afraid
it isn't even original nonsense. We don't, really, want to be
selfish, and we're not; you needn't pretend you are. And isn't it
getting very, very late? Don't you think Mrs. Lightmark looks as if
we ought to go? I don't mean that she looks inhospitable. But isn't
she rather pale and tired? This sort of thing doesn't seem to suit
her as well as her husband. Yes, I must really go."

When Miss Masters had deserted him, after extracting a promise that
he would take an early opportunity of paying his over-due respects
to her aunt, and had gone with Mrs. Lightmark in search of the old
lady, Rainham made his adieux, leaving Lightmark still radiant, and
protesting hospitably against such early hours; and as he walked
homewards, with a cigar unlighted between his lips, he smiled rather
bitterly, as he thought how little he was able to adhere to the
tenets of his philosophy. Why else should he regret so much and so
often the act which had been rung down when ... And how many more
acts and scenes were there to be?

"Well, I suppose one must stay to the end," he said finally. "One
isn't obliged to sit it out, but the audience are requested to keep
their seats until the fall of the curtain. Yes, leaving early
disturbs the other spectators."

While Lady Garnett was being wrapped up with the attention due to
her years and dignity, Mary and Eve sat talking in the hall, a
square, wainscoted little room, hung with pale grass matting, and
decorated brightly with quaint Breton faience and old brass sconces.

"I was so glad to see Philip here to-night," Mary was saying, while
Eve fastened for her the clasp of a refractory bracelet. "We were
afraid he was becoming quite a recluse, and that must be so bad for
him!"

"Almost as bad as too much society."

"Yes; it's only another form of dissipation."

"I'm not sure that it isn't better to have too much of other
people's society than too much of one's own."

"I don't think I ever regarded him from a--a society point of view.
You know what I mean--like Colonel Lightmark, for