I said candidly, 'though I
have perhaps been even more struck by its converse.'

'You had no earthly business to be her mother,' said my friend, with
irritation.

I shrugged my shoulders--what would you have done?--and opened 'La
Duchesse Bleue'.

Chapter 1.III

Mrs. Morgan, wife of a judge of the High Court of Bombay, and I sat
amidships on the cool side in the Suez Canal. She was outlining 'Soiled
Linen' in chain-stitch on a green canvas bag; I was admiring the
Egyptian sands. 'How charming,' said I, 'is this solitary desert in the
endless oasis we are compelled to cross!'

'Oasis in the desert, you mean,' said Mrs. Morgan; 'I haven't noticed
any, but I happened to look up this morning as I was putting on my
stockings, and I saw through my port-hole the most lovely mirage.'

I had been at school with Mrs. Morgan more than twenty years agone, but
she had come to the special enjoyment of the dignities of life while I
still liked doing things. Mrs. Morgan was the kind of person to make
one realize how distressing a medium is middle age. Contemplating her
precipitous lap, to which conventional attitudes were certainly more
becoming, I crossed my own knees with energy, and once more resolved to
be young until I was old.

'How perfectly delightful for you to be taking Cecily out!' said Mrs.
Morgan placidly.

'Isn't it?' I responded, watching the gliding sands.

'But she was born in sixty-nine--that makes her twenty-one. Quite time,
I should say.'

'Oh, we couldn't put it off any longer. I mean--her father has such a
horror of early debuts. He simply would not hear of her coming before.'

'Doesn't want her to marry in India, I dare say--the only one,' purred
Mrs. Morgan.

'Oh, I don't know. It isn't such a bad place. I was brought out there to
marry, and I married. I've found it very satisfactory.'

'You always did say exactly what you thought, Helena,' said Mrs. Morgan
excusingly.

'I haven't much patience with people who bring their daughters out to
give them the chance they never would have in England, and then go about
devoutly hoping they won't marry in India,' I said. 'I shall be very
pleased if Cecily does as well as your girls have done.'

'Mary in the Indian Civil and Jessie in the Imperial Service Troops,'
sighed Mrs. Morgan complacently. 'And both, my dear, within a year. It
WAS a blow.'

'Oh, it must have been!' I said civilly.

There was no use in bandying words with Emily Morgan.

'