u were much more entertaining before you commenced it,
Nicholas! Perhaps the idea has come to me why!"

I would not be drawn--I threw the war into the enemy's country.

"You are staying at the Reservoirs?"

I saw that she was--and that now the thought of my being there
disconcerted her--.

"But no!" she lied sweetly--"I am merely out here for the day to see
Louise, who has a son in the hospital--."

It was my turn to say--

"_Tiens?_"

And then we both laughed--and I let them go on--.

But when I got into my salon--I heard no typing--only there was a note
from Miss Sharp to say that some slight thing had gone wrong with the
machine, so she had taken the work to finish it at home--.

I cursed Coralie and all the fluffies in the world, and then in pain
laid down upon my bed.

IX

_Saturday Morning:_

Yesterday I was so restless I could not settle to anything. I read pages
and pages of Plato and was conscious that the words were going over in
my head without conveying the slightest meaning, and that the other part
of my mind was absorbed with thoughts of Miss Sharp--. If I only dared
to be natural with her we surely could be friends, but I am always
obsessed with the fear that she will leave me if I transgress in the
slightest beyond the line she has marked between us--. I see that she is
determined to remain only the secretary, and I realize that it is her
breeding which makes her act as she does--. If she were familiar or
friendly with me, she would feel it was not correct to come to my flat
alone--She only comes at all because the money is so necessary to
her--and having to come, she protects her dignity by wearing this ice
mask.--I know that she was affronted by Coralie's look on Thursday, and
that is why she went home pretending the typing machine was out of
order--Now if any more of these _contretemps_ happen she will probably
give me warning. Burton instinctively sensed this, and that is why he
disapproved of my asking her to lunch--If she had been an ordinary
typist Burton would not have objected in the least,--as I said before,
Burton knows the world!

Now what is to be done next?--I would like to go and confide in the
Duchesse, and tell her that I believe I have fallen in love with my
secretary, who won't look at me, and ask her advice--but that I fear
with all her broad-minded charity, her class prejudice is too strong to
make her really sympathetic. Her French mind of the _Ancien Regime