got my dinner-jacket down here I might as
well put it on. I say, mother, I think I'll get a tail-coat. Couldn't I
have one made here?"

"Isn't that collar rather tight?" asked Mrs. Fane anxiously. "And it
seems dreadfully tall."

"I like tall collars with evening dress," said Michael severely.

"You know best, dear, but you look perfectly miserable."

"It's only because my chin is a bit sore after shaving."

"Do you have to shave often?" enquired Mrs. Fane, tenderly horrified.

"Rather often," said Michael. "About once a week now."

"She has pretty hands, your lady love," said Mrs. Fane, suddenly looking
across to the McDonnells' table.

"I say, mother, for goodness' sake mind. She'll hear you," whispered
Michael.

"Oh, Michael dear, don't be so foolishly self-conscious."

After dinner Michael retired to his room, and came down again smoking a
cigarette.

Mrs. Fane made a little _moue_ of surprise.

"I say, mother, don't keep on calling attention to everything I do. You
know I've smoked for ages."

"Yes, but not so very publicly, dear boy."

"Well, you don't mind, do you? I must begin some time," said Michael.

"Michael, don't be cross with me. You're so deliciously amusing, and so
much too nice for those absurd women," Mrs. Fane laughed.

Just then the Miss McDonnells appeared on the staircase, and Michael
frowned at his mother not to say any more about them.

It was a fairly successful evening. The elder Miss McDonnell bored
Michael rather with a long account of why her father had left Ireland,
and what a blow it had been to him to open a large hotel in
Burton-on-Trent. He was also somewhat fatigued by the catalogue of Mr.
McDonnell's virtues, of his wit and courage and good looks and
shrewdness.

"He has a really old-fashioned sense of humour," said Miss McDonnell.
"But then, of course, he's Irish. He's accounted quite the cleverest man
in Burton, but then, being Irish, that's not to be wondered at."

Michael wished she would not say 'wondered' as if it were 'wandered,'
and indeed he was beginning to think that Miss McDonnell was a great
trial, when he suddenly discovered that by letting his arm hang very
loosely from his shoulder it was possible without the slightest hint of
intention occasionally to touch Kathleen's hand as they walked along.
The careful calculation that this proceeding demanded occupied his mind
so fully that he was able to give mechanical assents to Miss McDonnell's
prais