"Comfortable, don't you think? I want to have another bookcase over
there. I haven't worked here much since Cecily has been away; I have a
great deal of reading to do at the Museum, you know.--You look a vast
deal better, Miriam. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Most likely I shall continue to live with the Spences."

"You wouldn't care to come here?"

"Thank you; I think the other arrangement will be better."

"Perhaps so. For one thing, it's quite uncertain whether we shall keep
this house. It's really a good deal too large for us; an unnecessary
expense. If Cecily is often to be away like this, there's no
possibility of keeping the place in order. How the servants live, or
what they do, I have no idea. How can I be expected to look after such
things?"

"But surely it is not expected of you? I understood that Cecily had
left a housekeeper."

"Oh yes; but I have a suspicion that she does little but eat and drink.
I know the house is upside down. It's long enough since I had a decent
meal here. Practically I have taken to eating at restaurants. Of course
I say nothing about it to Cecily; what's the use of bothering her?
By-the-bye, how is she? How did you leave her?"

"Not very well, I'm afraid."

"She never says a word about her health. But then, practically, she
never writes. I doubt whether London suits her. We shall have to make
our head-quarters in Paris, I fancy; she was always well enough there.
Of course I can't abandon London entirely; at all events, not till
I've--till my materials for the book are all ready; but it's simple
enough for me to come and take lodgings for a month now and then."

Miriam gave an absent "Yes."

"You don't seem to have altered much, after all," he resumed, looking
at her with a smile. "You talk to me just like you used to. I expected
to find you more cheerful."

Miriam showed a forced smile, but answered nothing.

"Well, did you see much of Mallard?" he asked, throwing himself into a
seat impatiently, and beginning to rap his knee with the paper-knife.

"Not very much."

"Has he come back with you?"

"Oh no; he is still in Rome. He said that he would most likely return
when the others did."

"How do he and Cecily get on together?"

"They seemed to be quite friendly."

"Indeed? Does he go about with them?"

"I don't know."

"But did he when you were there?"

"I think he was with them at the Vatican once."

Elgar heard it with indifference. He was