ll? I'm afraid she would be dreadfully bored with me. I haven't a Great
Mind, you know."

"Rhoder likes you," said Mrs. Johnson, a smile of relief overspreading
her jolly face. "She was sayin' so only the other day. She has a great
respect for your knowledge of art, too. 'You wouldn't think it just to
talk with him,' she said, 'but he knows the most surprisin' things. Knows
them for himself'--that was how she put it--'without needin' to depend on
any books, or what anyone else says. I wish I was like that, mother,' she
says, and sighs. And of course, I knew why she wished that, and I said to
her, 'Rhoder, my dear, never you mind about knowin' things; gals don't
need to bother their heads about that. You look after the _outside_ of
your head,' I said, chaffing her about her hair, you know, 'and leave the
inside to look after itself.' I made her cross, of course; I'm for ever
makin' Rhoder cross without meanin' it. But that just shows what she
feels towards you, you see. And you'd talk healthy-like to her, which
is more than some does, if I know anythin'. One feels that of you, Mr.
Peter, if you'll excuse my sayin' it, that your talk is as innocent as
a baby's prattle, though it mayn't always mean much."

"Thank you very much," said Peter. "I will certainly prattle to Miss
Rhoda whenever she will let me. I should enjoy it, of course."

"Then that's settled." Mrs. Johnson rose, and shook out her skirts with
relief. "And a weight off my mind it will be.... You could make a third
with Rhoder and that Vyvian to-morrow afternoon, if you were so good and
not otherwise employed. They're off together somewhere, I know."

"Making a third" was a little beyond even Peter's readiness to be
helpful, and he looked dubious.

"I wonder if Mr. Vyvian would let me do that. You see, he doesn't much
like me. I expect I give him the creeps, like a toad...." Then, seeing
Mrs. Johnson's relieved face cloud, he added, "Oh, well, I'll ask them to
take me," and she smiled at him as at a good child. "I knew you would!"

Hilary didn't come in to dinner. That was as well; it gave Peter more
time. Perhaps it would be easier late at night to speak of the hopeless,
weary, impossible things that had suddenly risen in the way; easier to
think of things to say about them that wouldn't too much hurt Hilary or
himself.

At dinner Peter was very quiet and polite to everyone. Vyvian's demeanour
towards him was touched with irony; his smile was a continua