Gray youth

, it served as a sort of academy for the teaching of English to foreign waiters. These came-German, Swiss, Danish, Belgian, even Turkish-without a word of our tongue, gave their services for seve

while the establishment provided four set meals a day, you had to sit down to all of t

ed. Every night there was something "on"; if it was not a whist drive or singing it was an impromptu dance in the large double drawing-room on the first floor, or charades, or a semi-priva

eboard greetings down into the fender); and, ranged on one special little whatnot between the Nottingham lace curtains and Millais's framed and glazed supplement of "Little Miss Muffet," were Miss Addams's "grand-children"-the offspring of the three or four gentlemen or ladies who,

men were still smoking; but the drawing-room upstairs was filled with a twittering of anticipation of the guests knew not what. Except that it was to be in honour of Miss Towers's engagement, Miss Addams had refused to tell what the evening's entertainment was to be. But even thos

companiments, needed but a look to remove her rings, set them in a neat row along the piano-top, give the stool a twirl, and ask Mr. Geake, the Estate Agent, to turn over for her; and young Mr. Edmondson, who was a booking-clerk, moved here and there, humorously complaining that it was a bit thick, his being ousted

your place back again-afte

a ventriloquial voice, that might or might not have been that of Mr. Sandys, had been heard to ask whether Mr. Massey was licking the stamps; and again, when Mrs. Deschamps had asked Mr. Geake whether he would be so good as to fetch her book for her (it was on the chair by the aquarium), Mr. Geake had given the widow an intelligent look and had replie

she supposed that that was what the "Young Musical Society" of Miss Addams's advertisement really meant: gouty flirtations, ping-pong in middle age, having your toes trodden on during scratch dances by stout and breathless partners, and Progressive Whist with twenty-five-years-old stories told between the deals. Amory's pretty mouth curled: she saw it all with merciless clearness. Glenerne seemed to her to be half ancients trying to be young, and half young people quickly getting old before their time. Oh, that terrible and affable Mr. Edmondson-that awful Mr. Geake-that impossible b

lmost shrank from him as she found her great fir-cone of red-gold hair only an inch or two from his green knitted waistcoat. At a greater distance, she sometimes glanced at this waistcoat with interest, as

arentally. "Don't you get a bit fed-

said

y Spec a few years ago? And we think nothing about it now. I see 'em out o' my little window once the morning rush slacks off a b

have been the historian of modern jo

ing at our place alone; somebody must make some money out of it! I forget what their divvy is.-But I wonder you

e same," s

Not very long before, Mr. Edmondson would have resented being got at by girls, especially in his

French blind-man's bluff for a start, with word-making and whist to

a letter

s than writing in a bad light. It's no good wishing you had your eyesight back again when it's gone: the thing

mory

anding. She stopped. She was very angry with her aunt; she felt that her aunt was making of her,

se that these things ought not to have to be said. In making it necessary for

nd on the knob of the door. She

r?" she as

ng the way you do. You might think of me a

ht and did cut her a little under her second chin, well, we all have our troubles, and there are worse ones than plumpness. She straightened her wisteria-coloured satin blouse so that the wa

sad art-colours always. You look like a sparrow having a dust-bath. They may be all right for pictures, but it isn't as if you sat in a frame all day. Good gracious

Amory tu

y or more, had earned a rest. It did not occur to her that life might have bruised and scarred them, and that they laughed a little loudly and stridently for fear of worse, and that there was hardly one of them whose eyes had not rested on sadder and more sordid and tragic scenes than her own had ever seen. She saw them, as it were, in the flat, as a mere human pattern, and when she was bored with it, Glenerne was a thing to be shut up like one of its own photograph albums. Their manners offended her, a

room and took down

ame a tap at her door, and, in response to her

up the sides of his head always reminded Amory of the elastics of an old pair of boots, and his cropped dark moustache did not interfere with his perpetual gentle hissing. He wore gold glasses and a closely-buttoned frock-coat; he was an educational bookseller

nd see whether you won't join the rest of us in our little celebrat

ion, Amory closed her book again. She supposed she must.

t absent yourself.-And since I am here, I wonder whether I might

the educational bookselle

en Geraldine and I are married, in July if all be well, I do not want you to feel that a

ve it for a moment in doubt that she was properly

George--" said

u won't think me horrid-but I t

his hands, as if to say that all should be e

put the least constraint on you. I only want to assure you tha

d Amory hurriedly; and t

es, Chiswick Mall. One sees such sweet sketches there, especially of sunsets. But in case you do elect to occupy your studio, there will be a l

rned his back, almost as if he wished to reassure Amory about any stray jest she might have heard about the a

the walls; M. Criqui "turned" for Mrs. Deschamps; Mr. Edmondson was waltzing with pretty Miss Crebbin, the typist; and Mr. Sandys danced with Miss Swan, of the Preparatory School near the tram terminus. The window looking on to the back garden was open; the screen of pock-marked coloured glass had been drawn in front of the fire; and the pictures on the walls moved slightly in the draughts. Mr. Gea

here, placed her hand on his arm. "Might as well have one of these while there's any left," he said genially, snatching a paper fan from the mantelpiece as they passed; "I wonder what those blighters are up to!" He indicated the group that conspired near

Edmondson of the green waistcoat, no

with her eye drifting a little more fre

Deschamps for the fourth time. They were talking French. "No taking advantage, Criqui!...

le," sa

Road and the right change before you can say knife I've got Aspinall down on me like a cartload o'bricks. It ain't no tea-party, my job ain't, not in the thick, you take my word for it! Chap tried to ring a bad two-bob on me this morning; broke in two in the cli

adful reputations, and next at the open window at the back, where she asked him what "In the Spring a Young Man's Fancy" was in French, and then disappeared altogether. Aunt Geraldine, laughing, moved everywhere, with Mr. Massey following her with his hands clasped behind his back, and if she had to show her half-hoop of diamonds once

e said, and Mrs. Deschamps turned it backwards and forwards and said she wondered who it could be from. She tore the envelope open and then fell back with a shriek, while

Rainbow, making a reckless attempt to a

ars o' laughter!" Mr. Beeto

'ome wif

pen

sh and the spill of

ve a look-where

hes!" pouted M

e doorways. He held himself more erect than usual against the wall; save that the tips of his fingers were turned in

Ooell-come!"

d (in flat violation of Miss Addams's rule) puffing a gigantic cigar, Mr. Wellcome himself stood

's all this about?" Mr. Wellc

ions bro

ed Mr. Rainbow, in a sor

Mr. Geake. "It'

out o'

me, We

ora

on (only remarking, "When the cat's away-eh?"), slapped his hands loudly together, and then,

eered h

d them and shaken hands with them he almost doubled the scholastic stationer in two with t

on the sugar-basin! Congrats, congrats.-Now, Mrs. Deschamps! Damme, I must have a kiss from you too, if it was only for the sake of old times!-Where's Mrs. W--? Tut-

d snapped his fingers to

Wellcome travelled for Perclay Barkins & Co., and knew butlers and wine-tasters and cellarmen and head-waiters, and was to be relied on for valuable information about vintages a

men all, oblige me by joining me in a smoke. The curtains, mother? Dash the curtains; Massey don't get engaged every day, at least I hope he doesn't; not that there's any knowing what some of them does under the rose-ha, ha, ha!... Now, Sandys, help yourself

minute; then, as he stood upright again with a bottle in his r

r. Rainbow. "Warm it in your hands a minute first-this way-sme

ncing the billiard-balls every eye co

y, lips closed, nostrils gently s

I should think so! W. W. gives you his word for that, worth something or worth nothing as the case may be!... Now, all! Rainbow's

ich and deep as Amory's

s. Deschamps) had already been fluttered by the Kissing Bee, and was in a mood too softened for cards; and, for fear the brandy should have affected anybody, another tray with strong coffee was passed round by Omar K, the red-fezzed boy from Smyrna with the face of the hue of a chocolate "shape." They kept it up late; for once the "lights out at eleven" rule was suspended; and even Amory sat up quite a long time after she might without singularity have gone to bed. At last Mr. Wellcome rose. He for

aid all