e
offered no explanation to his mother and aunt beyond saying that he had
been detained by a caller, after Sir George's departure. He read in the
faces of his mother and aunt their natural pride that he should be
capable of conducting Sir George's business for him after Sir George's
departure of a night. Yet he found himself incapable of correcting the
false impression which he had wittingly given. In plain terms, he could
not tell the ladies, he could not bring himself to tell them, that a
well-dressed young woman had called upon him at a peculiar hour and
interviewed him in the strict privacy of Sir George's own room on behalf
of a lady's paper called _Home and Beauty_. He wanted very much to
impart to them these quite harmless and, indeed, rather agreeable and
honourable facts, but his lips would not frame the communicating words.
Not even when the talk turned, as of course it did, to _Love in
Babylon_, did he contrive to mention the interview. It was ridiculous;
but so it was.

'By the way----' he began once, but his mother happened to speak at the
same instant.

'What were you going to say, Henry?' Aunt Annie asked when Mrs. Knight
had finished.

'Oh, nothing. I forget,' said the miserable poltroon.

'The next advertisement will say twentieth thousand, that's what it will
say--you'll see!' remarked Mrs. Knight.

'What an ass you are!' murmured Henry to Henry. 'You'll have to tell
them some time, so why not now? Besides, what in thunder's the matter?'

Vaguely, dimly, he saw that Miss Foster's tight-fitting bodice was the
matter. Yes, there was something about that bodice, those teeth, that
tongue, that hair, something about _her_, which seemed to challenge the
whole system of his ideas, all his philosophy, self-satisfaction,
seriousness, smugness, and general invincibility. And he thought of her
continually--no particular thought, but a comprehensive, enveloping,
brooding, static thought. And he was strangely jolly and uplifted, full
of affectionate, absent-minded good humour towards his mother and Aunt
Annie.

There was a _ting-ting_ of the front-door bell.

'Perhaps Dr. Dancer has called for a chat,' said Aunt Annie with
pleasant anticipation.

Sarah was heard to ascend and to run along the hall. Then Sarah entered
the dining-room.

'Please, sir, there's a young lady to see you.'

Henry flushed.

The sisters looked at one another.

'What name, Sarah?' Aunt Annie whispered.

'I didn't ask, mum.