bleness on my
part; if I could I'd do it for your sake, and put my own inclination on
one side; but I simply can't bear the intellectual strain. It's a marvel
to me how poor Silverhampton stands it as well as he does."

"He is never exposed to it. You don't suppose I waste my own jokes on my
own husband, do you? They are far too good for home consumption, like
fish at the seaside. When fish has been up to London and returned, it is
then sold at the place where it was caught. And that's the way with my
jokes; when they have been all round London and come home to roost, I
serve them up to Silverhampton as quite fresh."

"And he believes in their freshness? How sweet and confiding of him!"

"He never listens to them, so it is all the same to him whether they're
fresh or not. That is why I confide so absolutely in Silverhampton; he
never listens to a word I say, and never has done."

Lord Stonebridge amended this remark. "Except when you accepted him."

"Certainly not; because, as a matter of fact, I refused him; but he
never listened, and so he married me. It is so restful to have a
husband who never attends to what you say! It must be dreadfully wearing
to have one who does, because then you'd never be able to tell him the
truth. And the great charm of your having a home of your own appears to
be that it is the one place where you can speak the truth."

Lord Bobby clapped his hands. "Whatever lies disturb the street, there
must be truth at home," he ejaculated.

"Wiser not, even there," murmured Sir Wilfred Madderley, under his
breath.

"But you have all interrupted me, and haven't listened to what I was
telling you about my intelligent man; and if you eat my food you must
listen to my stones--it's only fair."

"But if even your own husband doesn't think it necessary to listen to
them," Lord Bobby objected, "why should we, who have never desired to be
anything more than sisters to you?"

"Because he doesn't eat my food--I eat his; that makes all the
difference, don't you see?"

"Then do you listen to his stories?"

"To every one of them every time they are told; and I know to an inch
the exact place where to laugh. But I'm going on about my man. He was
one of those instructive boring people, who will tell you the reason of
things; and he explained to me that soldiers wear khaki and polar bears
white, because if you are dressed in the same colour as the place where
you are, it looks as if you weren't there. A