one knew the poem well, but loud and long. Miss Bennett did
not sing, play, or recite.

"Oh no, she 'as a little game of her own," said Mrs. Hodges.

"Now, don't you begin chaffing me. The fact is I know quite a lot about
palmistry and second sight."

"Oh, do tell my 'and, Miss Bennett," cried the girls in her department,
eager to please her.

"I don't like telling 'ands, I don't really. I've told people such
terrible things and they've all come true, it makes one superstitious
like."

"Oh, Miss Bennett, just for once."

A little crowd collected round her, and, amid screams of embarrassment,
giggles, blushings, and cries of dismay or admiration, she talked
mysteriously of fair and dark men, of money in a letter, and of journeys,
till the sweat stood in heavy beads on her painted face.

"Look at me," she said. "I'm all of a perspiration."

Supper was at nine. There were cakes, buns, sandwiches, tea and coffee,
all free; but if you wanted mineral water you had to pay for it. Gallantry
often led young men to offer the ladies ginger beer, but common decency
made them refuse. Miss Bennett was very fond of ginger beer, and she drank
two and sometimes three bottles during the evening; but she insisted on
paying for them herself. The men liked her for that.

"She's a rum old bird," they said, "but mind you, she's not a bad sort,
she's not like what some are."

After supper progressive whist was played. This was very noisy, and there
was a great deal of laughing and shouting, as people moved from table to
table. Miss Bennett grew hotter and hotter.

"Look at me," she said. "I'm all of a perspiration."

In due course one of the more dashing of the young men remarked that if
they wanted to dance they'd better begin. The girl who had played the
accompaniments sat at the piano and placed a decided foot on the loud
pedal. She played a dreamy waltz, marking the time with the bass, while
with the right hand she 'tiddled' in alternate octaves. By way of a change
she crossed her hands and played the air in the bass.

"She does play well, doesn't she?" Mrs. Hodges remarked to Philip. "And
what's more she's never 'ad a lesson in 'er life; it's all ear."

Miss Bennett liked dancing and poetry better than anything in the world.
She danced well, but very, very slowly, and an expression came into her
eyes as though her thoughts were far, far away. She talked breathlessly of
the floor and the heat and the supper. She said that t