Selwyn,' she said abruptly, 'do you feel that there is a Higher
Purpose working through life?'

'Y-yes,' he said, rather startled, 'I think there is.'

'Sometimes I do,' she went on; 'then, again, I think we're here on this
earth for no purpose at all. It often strikes me that Some One up
above started humanity with a great idea, but lost interest in us.'

'I think,' he said slowly, 'that every man has an instinctive feeling
sometime in his life that he is a small part of a great plan that is
working somehow towards the light.'

'Yes. It's a comfortable thought. It's what makes good Christians
enjoy their dinner without worrying too much about the poor.'

He made no answer, though he was not one who often let an epigram go by
without a counter-thrust; but he could see that the girl was struggling
towards a sincerity of expression much as a frightened horse crosses a
bridge which spans a roaring waterfall, ready to bolt at the first
thing that affrights it.

'Mr. Selwyn,' she said--and for the first time her words had something
of a lilt and less incision--'do you think women are living the life
intended for them?'

'Why not?' he fenced.

'Well, it seems to me that when any living creature is placed in the
world it is given certain powers to use. You saw this morning how our
horses wanted to race, and couldn't understand our holding them back.
A mosquito bites because that's apparently its job in the world, and it
doesn't know anything else. I was once told that if animals do not use
some faculty they possess, in time Nature takes it away from them.'

'You are quite a student of natural history, Miss Durwent.'

'No--but every now and then mother unearths a man who teaches us
something, like last night.'

He acknowledged the compliment with a slight inclination of his head.
The waiter leant expectantly beside him.

'To descend from the metaphysical to the purely physical,' he said,
glancing in some perplexity at the terrific nomenclature of Monsieur
Beauchamp's dishes, 'do you think we might take a chance on this
_Poulet reine aux primeurs; salade lorette_? I gather that it has
something to do with chicken.'

'It's rather artful of Monsieur Beauchamp to word it so we poor English
can get that much, isn't it?'

'Yes. He apparently acts on the principle that a little learning is a
common thing.'

V.

As Selwyn gave the necessary order to the waiter, a noisy hubbub of
laughter from an adjoining