e shouldn't
be. _Pourquoi pas moi aussi_? Men are all alike.'

'It is not the same.... What a child you are! Some day you will love
and then you will see very differently.... The old fool thinks you
are----'

'No. He said I was Ariel. So I am. So I am.... I wonder I never
thought of it before. I shall never be a woman as women have been----'

'There have been good women.'

'Tra la la! The good women have done far more harm in the world than
all the bad women put together. Lady B is a good woman.'

'A painted tigress. _She_ won't forgive you in a hurry. She
thinks--that, too.'

'People can't think beyond what they are. You can't expect me to be
what other people think.'

'I want you to be yourself.'

'So I am.... You shall take me away in a day or two. I want to see
the Bracebridges just for fun, _and_ the Cabinet Ministers, and then I
want to drown their memories one by one in the lakes as we pass them.
We are going to see them all, aren't we?'

'I want to get away. I can't bear being with you in this atmosphere of
money.'

'Now, now. You promised me you would never behave like a lover.'

'I thought I was behaving like an angry brother.'

She was pleased with him for that. She knew that part of his trouble
was due to his being an only son.

The Bracebridges were disappointing: a very dull man, a hard and
raffish woman, but apparently to Lady Butcher they were the wonder of
all wonders. She and Lady Bracebridge were to each other 'dear Ethel'
and 'dearest Madge.' Together they made a single dominant and very
formidable personality, which must be obeyed. They flung themselves
upon the house-party, sifted the affairs of every member of it, and in
three days had arranged for two engagements and one divorce. They
commanded Verschoyle--by suggestion--to marry a Mrs Slesinger, who was
plain but almost as rich as himself, and in his distress he very nearly
succumbed; but Clara swooped in to save him, and found that her
position was made almost impossible by whispered tittle-tattle, cold
looks, and downright rudeness. She was distinctly left out of picnic
and boating parties, and almost in contempt she was partnered with Sir
Henry who, after Lady Bracebridge's arrival, was no longer master in
his own house.... When the Cabinet Ministers arrived the situation
became impossible for they produced chaos. The household was
dislocated, and in the confusion Clara packed, had her trunks carr