shes you to understand the exact nature of the
friendship between her and me. I'm obeying instructions. [_FARNCOMBE
sits on the ottoman, nursing his hat and overcoat. Then JEYES sits in
the arm-chair by the centre table, first turning the chair so that it
faces FARNCOMBE._] Farncombe, I was under thirty, and still a
subaltern, when I made Miss Parradell's acquaintance. Like most of my
pals, I was spending my nights, whenever I could get away from
Aldershot, in the stalls at the Pandora-- much the same as _you've_
been doing recently, and as a certain class of young man'll go on
doing as long as the Pandora, and similar shops, continue to flourish.
Ha! How honoured we felt, we men, in those days, at knowing some of
the Pandora girls, and having the privilege of supping 'em and
standing 'em dinner on Sunday evenings! If they'd been royal
princesses we couldn't have been more elated. [_With a gesture._]
Don't jump at conclusions. It generally ended there, or with our
running into debt at a jeweller's. _We_ were young, _they_ were
beautiful-- or we thought 'em so; but the majority of us weren't
vicious, any more than the majority of the girls were-- though many of
'em were mighty calculating. It would have been better for us men if
all the girls _had_ been wicked; the glamour, the infatuation, the
folly, would have been sooner over, and one of us at least would have
had a different tale to tell.

[_JEYES pauses, gazing at the floor, FARNCOMBE moves impatiently on
the ottoman and LILY seats herself upon the settee._

LILY.

[_Plaintively._] Nicko-- Nicko-- I merely wanted you to----

JEYES.

[_Rousing himself and speaking to LILY over his shoulder._] Who was it
introduced us?

LILY.

Miss Du Cane-- Aggie Du Cane.

JEYES.

Agnes Du Cane. _She's_ gone under. [_To LILY._] Outside Buckley's
oyster-bar, wasn't it?

LILY.

Not outside; in the parlour.

JEYES.

[_To FARNCOMBE._] Lily had only lately come to the Pandora--
a pale-faced slip of a thing. [_To LILY._] Eighteen, weren't you?

LILY.

[_Nodding._] Eighteen.

JEYES.

I confess I wasn't overwhelmingly attracted by her at first; she was
so unlike the rest. [_Laughing bitterly._] Ha, ha, ha!

LILY.

[_Weakly._] Ha, ha, ha! Wasn't I dowdy!

JEYES.

But she was humble, and naive, and confiding; and my vanity was
tickled by her delight at the little treats I gave her, and by her
gratitude for a tuppeny-ha'penny present or two. Nobody, I believ