into song in her bath because
she thought of tired-looking Judy still asleep in the next room, but
something in her went on singing to meet this new fine day. She had her
breakfast in solitary state, because Mrs. Penticost would neither let
her wait nor Judy be disturbed, and then she flung a coat over her
"Fishwife" dress and went out into the morning. She went over to Cloom
to see whether Nicky had forgiven her and would sit for his portrait as
usual.

Thinking of Nicky made her think of Ishmael, and she went over again in
her mind what he had looked like when he had been so angry yesterday.
She had seen a new Ishmael then, a more interesting one; she was vaguely
aware of liking him better than before. Perhaps it might be rather fun
to see if she could make him angry. Probably he would only be really
angry with anyone he cared for, and of course he didn't care for her at
all. Georgie pondered that point as she went. She was honest and sweet,
but she was an arrant little flirt, and Val was not the first man who
had kissed her. She never pretended anything to herself, but she could
pretend things to other people. She was too vital to be vulgar, but she
was also too vital to be quite well-bred, and often her methods were
startling, as for her age and period she cared remarkably little what
she said. She would try and wake Ishmael up; it would do him good. For
all her plainness of actual feature, if that wonderful mouth were
excepted, no one knew better than Georgie that she had _beaute de
diable_, and the sheer impudent vitality of her swept nearly every man
off his feet if she wished it to. "Me, m'dear?" she would protest to
Judy or any friend who pointed this out to her. "Most hideous female,
m'dear. Face like a pudding." Here she would puff out her cheeks and
hold them distended till her soft infectious laughter made them
collapse. "Everyone's kind to me, because I'm so plain they're sorry for
me...."

Privately she considered she knew everything in the world there was to
know about men. In reality she knew very little, placing as much too
much importance on sex as Judy placed too little.

Arrived at the Manor, she found that Nicky had disappeared, after an
annoying and rather alarming habit of his, and was not expected back, by
those who knew his roving ways, till the evening. Ishmael informed her
of this with rather a rueful smile.

"He's always had these wild fits ever since he's been big enough to go
off on h