then there was all that about the soup,
you know."

"How do you mean, 'all that about the soup'? What about the soup? What
soup?"

"Well, things sort of hotted up a bit when the soup arrived."

"I don't understand."

"I mean, the trouble seemed to start, as it were, when the waiter had
finished ladling out the mulligatawny. Thick soup, you know."

"I know mulligatawny is a thick soup. Yes?"

"Well, my old uncle--I'm not blaming him, don't you know--more his
misfortune than his fault--I can see that now--but he's got a heavy
moustache. Like a walrus, rather, and he's a bit apt to inhale the stuff
through it. And I--well, I asked him not to. It was just a suggestion,
you know. He cut up fairly rough, and by the time the fish came round
we were more or less down on the mat chewing holes in one another. My
fault, probably. I wasn't feeling particularly well-disposed towards
the Family that night. I'd just had a talk with Bruce--my cousin, you
know--in Piccadilly, and that had rather got the wind up me. Bruce
always seems to get on my nerves a bit somehow and--Uncle Donald asking
me to dinner and all that. By the way, did you get the books?"

"What books?"

"Bruce said he wanted to send you some books. That was why I gave him
your address." Sally stared.

"He never sent me any books."

"Well, he said he was going to, and I had to tell him where to send
them."

Sally walked on, a little thoughtfully. She was not a vain girl, but it
was impossible not to perceive in the light of this fresh evidence that
Mr. Carmyle had made a journey of three thousand miles with the sole
object of renewing his acquaintance with her. It did not matter, of
course, but it was vaguely disturbing. No girl cares to be dogged by a
man she rather dislikes.

"Go on telling me about your uncle," she said.

"Well, there's not much more to tell. I'd happened to get that wireless
of yours just before I started out to dinner with him, and I was more or
less feeling that I wasn't going to stand any rot from the Family. I'd
got to the fish course, hadn't I? Well, we managed to get through that
somehow, but we didn't survive the fillet steak. One thing seemed to
lead to another, and the show sort of bust up. He called me a good many
things, and I got a bit fed-up, and finally I told him I hadn't any more
use for the Family and was going to start out on my own. And--well, I
did, don't you know. And here I am."

Sally listened to this saga br