re to be made much of just because I am the only man."

"Oh, but you would always be more than that, of course."

"I'm not more than an old fogey when the young fellows are around. They
will take no notice of me at tea-time. Well, I'm getting used to it.
I'm getting to know my place." "If that was your place, you would soon
vacate it."

"How can I vacate it?"

"When people begin to take me for an old fogey, they'll not have the
honour of my company in their houses."

"That's very well for you--wait till the time comes. And I suppose you
like it, anyhow. You seem to enjoy all this"--waving a hand around--"as
if you were a girl who had never seen anything. I'm sick and tired of
the whole show."

"Then don't have any more to do with it. Go home."

"Home! What home have I?"

"A lovely flat in town, they tell me, where you give the best dinners,
and ladies' theatre parties and things--" "Pshaw! I am hardly ever
there. I hate the racket of London in the season--I'm not up to it
nowadays--and you wouldn't have me stranded in Piccadilly at this time
of year, I presume? I'm obliged to spend the winter down south--and by
the same token I must soon be getting off, or these east winds and damp
mists will play the deuce with my bronchitis--"

"Oh, it's bronchitis, is it? I knew it was something. I suppose you've
been coddling yourself with hot rooms and all sorts of flannel things;
that's the way people make themselves tender, and get chills and chest
complaints, and get old before their time."

"The doctors insist on flannel--the natural wool--all of them."

"The greatest mistake in the world. I used to wear it because I thought
the doctors ought to know, and I was always getting colds. Now I never
let a bit of wool touch my skin--haven't for years and years--and never
know what it means to have a cold."

"That is contrary to all the traditions," he remarked seriously,
addressing her handsome back; for she was still supposed to be writing
her letter. "I can't believe that it is due to not wearing flannel,
Debbie. It's your splendid vitality--your being so different from other
people--"

"Nothing of the sort! You try it. Not just now, of course, with winter
beginning, but when warm weather comes again--"

And so on. The hostess broke in upon their TETE-A-TETE while they were
still engrossed in this interesting topic. She was drawn into it, and
made a disciple of by Deb, who attributed all her own blooming health
an