"I was expecting that."

"I wonder," he said, "how you others discover the secret of eternal
youth. You and Macheson and Wilhelmina all look younger than you did
last year. I seem to be getting older all by myself."

She looked at him critically. There were certainly more lines about his
face and the suspicion of crow's-feet about his tired eyes.

"Age," she said, "is simply a matter of volition. You wear yourself out
fretting for the impossible!"

"One has one's desires," he murmured.

"But you should learn," she said, "to let your desires be governed by
your reason. It is a foolish thing to want what you may not have."

"You think that it is like that with me?" he asked.

"All the world knows," she answered, "that you are in love with
Wilhelmina!"

"One must be in love with someone," he remarked.

"Naturally! But why choose a woman who is head and ears in love with
some one else?"

"It cannot last," he answered, "she has married him."

Lady Peggy reached out for a cushion and placed it behind her head.

"That certainly would seem hopeful in the case of an ordinary
woman--myself, for instance," she said. "But Wilhelmina is not an
ordinary woman. She always would do things differently from other
people. I don't want to make you more unhappy than you are, but I
honestly believe that Wilhelmina is going to set a new fashion. She is
going to try and re-establish the life domestic amongst the upper
classes."

"She always was such a reformer," he sighed.

Lady Peggy nodded sympathetically.

"Of course, one can't tell how it may turn out," she continued, "but at
present they seem to have turned life into a sort of Garden of Eden, and
do you know I can't help fancying that there isn't the slightest chance
for the serpent. Wilhelmina is so fearfully obstinate."

"The thing will cloy!" he declared.

"I fancy not," she answered. "You see, they don't live on sugar-plums.
Victor Macheson is by way of being a masterful person, and Wilhelmina is
only just beginning to realize the fascination of being ruled. Frankly,
Gilbert, I don't think there's the slightest chance for you!"

He sighed.

"I am afraid you are right," he said regretfully. "I began to realize it
last night, when we went into the library unexpectedly, and Wilhelmina
blushed. No self-respecting woman ought to blush when she is discovered
being kissed by her own husband."

"Wilhelmina," Lady Peggy said, stretching out her hand for one of Deyes'