e
table he shifted his position to move with it, unconsciously, like a
tired animal. Francey, cross-legged and smoking, on the couch which at
night unfolded itself into a bed, saw the movement and smiled at him.
Her eyes were as steady in their serenity as his were steady with
hunger. She did not change colour, so that whatever she understood
from that long scrutiny did not trouble her. He leant forward, as
though he were afraid of missing some subtle half-tone in her voice.

"Mr. Ricardo thinks I'm unprejudiced. He's forgotten the times when he
pulled my ears and smacked my head. But you are different, Francey.
You can say what you think."

"But it wouldn't be at all helpful," she answered very solemnly. "To
begin with, I have the scientific mind, and I cannot accept as a basis
of argument an entirely untested hypothesis."

Connie Edwards thereupon gave vent to an artificial groan of anguish,
followed by an explosive giggle which would have lost her her half of
Rufus Cosgrave's chair had he not put his arm round her. There were
only three chairs in the room, and as two of them had been already
occupied when she and her companion had, as she expressed it, "blown
in" half an hour previously, they had perched together, listening with
clasped hands and an air of insincere solemnity. For Mr. Ricardo had
not stopped reading. He had gone on as though he had not heard their
boisterous entry, and even now would have seemed unaware of their
existence but for something bitter and antagonistic in the hunch of his
thin shoulders. His dark, biting eyes avoided them like those of a
sullen child who does not want to see. But Miss Edwards appeared to be
not easily depressed. She waved her hand in friendly thanks for the
cigarette case which Francey tossed across to her, and, having selected
her cigarette with blunt, viciously manicured fingers, poked Cosgrave
for a match.

"Gawd Almighty, and Little Connie K.O.'ed in the first round by an
untested hypo--hypo---- What was it, Ruffles dear? (Oh, do stop
squeezing my hand! This isn't the pictures, and it's a match I
want--not love.) An untested hypothesis. Thank you, dearie. I wonder
if He's feeling as sore about it as I am?"

She gurgled over her cigarette, and Cosgrave smiled at everyone in
turn, as though he had said aloud, "Isn't she a splendid joke?" He
looked almost mystically happy.

"Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven," Mr. Ricardo muttered. "Mark it,
mar