Lavender, "hadn't I better begin and tell
Ingram about your surprise and delight when you came near Oban and saw
the tall hotels and the trees? It was the trees, I think, that
struck you most, because, you know, those in Lewis--well, to tell the
truth--the fact is, the trees of Lewis--as I was saying, the trees of
Lewis are not just--they cannot be said to be--"

"You bad boy, to say anything against the Lewis!" exclaimed Sheila;
and Ingram held that she was right, and that there were certain sorts
of ingratitude more disgraceful than others, and that this was just
about the worst.

"Oh, I have brought all the good away from Lewis," said Lavender with
a careless impertinence.

"No," said Sheila proudly. "You have not brought away my papa, and
there is not any one in this country I have seen as good as he is."

"My dear, your experience of the thirty millions of folks in these
islands is quite convincing. I was wholly in the wrong; and if you
forgive me we shall celebrate our reconciliation in a cigarette--that
is to say, Ingram and I will perform the rites, and you can look on."

So Sheila went away to get the cigarettes also.

"You don't say you smoke in your drawing-room, Lavender?" said
Ingram, mindful of the fastidious ways of his friend even when he had
bachelor's rooms in King street.

"Don't I, though? I smoke everywhere--all over the place. Don't you
see, we have no visitors yet. No one is supposed to know we have
come South. Sheila must get all sorts of things before she can be
introduced to my friends and my aunt's friends, and the house must be
put to rights, too. You wouldn't have her go to see my aunt in that
sailor's costume she used to rush about in up in Lewis?"

"That is precisely what I would have," said Ingram: "she cannot look
more handsome in any other dress."

"Why, my aunt would fancy I had married a savage: I believe she fears
something of the sort now."

"And you haven't told even her that you are in London?"

"No."

"Well, Lavender, that is a precious silly performance. Suppose she
hears of your being in town, what will you say to her?"

"I should tell her I wanted a few days to get my wife properly dressed
before taking her about."

Ingram shrugged his shoulders: "Perhaps you are right. Perhaps,
indeed, it would be better if you waited six months before you
introduced Sheila to your friends. At present you seem to be keeping
the footlights turned down until everything is read