as a habit. It was wonderful
the effect that woman had on him. He couldn't think how she did it. It
was as if her mere presence in a room----

He thought that Jane was going to admit that as she had admitted
everything, but as he looked at her he saw that her mouth had lifted at
its winged corners, and her eyes were darting their ominous light.

"It's awful of me, I know," she said, "but her presence in a room--in
the house, Hugh--makes me feel as if _I_ could scream the roof off."

(He glanced uneasily at her.)

"She makes me want to _do_ things."

"What things?" he inquired mildly.

"The things I mustn't--to break loose--to kick over the traces----"

"You don't surprise me." He smoothed his face to the expression proper
to a person unsurprised, dealing imperturbably with what he had long ago
foreseen.

"Sometimes I think that if Gertrude were not so good, I might be more
so. You're all so good," she said. "_You_ are so good, so very, very
good."

"I observe," said Brodrick, "a few elementary rules, as you do
yourself."

"But I don't want," she said, "to observe them any more. I want to put
my foot through all the rules."

The front door bell rang as the chiming clock struck eight.

"That's John," he said, "and Henry."

"Did you ever put your foot through a rule? Did John? Did Henry? Fancy
John setting out on an adventure with his hair brushed like that and his
spectacles on----"

They were announced. She rose to greet them. They waited. The clock with
its soft silver insistence struck the quarter. It was awful, she said,
to have to live with a clock that struck the quarter; and Henry shook
his head at her and said, "Nerves, Jinny, nerves."

John looked at his watch. "I thought," said John, "you dined at eight."

"So did I," said Brodrick. He turned to Jane. "Your friend Prothero does
not observe the rule of punctuality."

"If they won't turn up in time," said Henry, "I should dine without
them."

They did dine ultimately. Prothero turned up at a quarter to nine,
entering with the joint. Laura was not with him. Laura couldn't, he
said, "get off."

He was innocent and unconscious of offence. They were not to bring back
the soup or fish. Roast mutton was enough for him. He expected he was a
bit late. He had been detained by Tanqueray. Tanqueray had just come
back.

Involuntarily Brodrick looked at Jane.

Prothero had to defend her from a reiterated charge of neurosis brought
against her by H