wonder now if Sir Isaac...."

"One can't help observing things," said the maid, after a pause. "Mute
though we be.")

Lady Harman had the whole five and eightpence with her. She had managed
to keep it intact in her jewel case, declaring she had no change when
any small demands were made on her.

With an exhilaration so great that she wanted sorely to laugh aloud she
walked out through her big open gates and into the general publicity of
Putney Hill. Why had she not done as much years ago? How long she had
been, working up to this obvious thing! She hadn't been out in such
complete possession of herself since she had been a schoolgirl. She held
up a beautifully gloved hand to a private motor-car going downhill and
then to an engaged taxi going up, and then with a slightly dashed
feeling, picked up her skirt and walked observantly downhill. Her reason
dispelled a transitory impression that these two vehicles were on Sir
Isaac's side against her.

There was quite a nice taxi on the rank at the bottom of the hill. The
driver, a pleasant-looking young man in a white cap, seemed to have been
waiting for her in particular; he met her timid invitation halfway and
came across the road to her and jumped down and opened the door. He took
her instructions as though they were after his own heart, and right in
front of her as she sat was a kind of tin cornucopia full of artificial
flowers that seemed like a particular attention to her. His fare was two
and eightpence and she gave him four shillings. He seemed quite
gratified by her largesse, his manner implied he had always thought as
much of her, from first to last their relations had been those of sunny
contentment, and it was only as she ascended the steps of Lady
Beach-Mandarin's portico, that it occurred to her that she now had
insufficient money for an automobile to take her home. But there were
railways and buses and all sorts of possibilities; the day was an
adventure; and she entered the drawing-room with a brow that was
beautifully unruffled. She wanted to laugh still; it animated her eyes
and lips with the pleasantest little stir you can imagine.

"A-a-a-a-a-h!" cried Lady Beach-Mandarin in a high note, and threw
out--it had an effect of being quite a number of arms--as though she was
one of those brass Indian goddesses one sees.

Lady Harman felt taken in at once to all that capacious bosom involved
and contained....

Sec.2

It was quite an amusing lunch. But