r head and laughed as she seated herself beside Lady
Tanagra.

The car crooned its way up Sloane Street and across into Knightsbridge,
Lady Tanagra intent upon her driving.

"Is it indiscreet to ask where you are taking me?" enquired Patricia
with elaborate humility.

Lady Tanagra laughed as she jammed on the brake to avoid running into
the stern of a motor-omnibus.

"I feel like a pirate to-day. I want to run away with someone, or do
something desperate. Have you ever felt like that?"

"A politician's secretary must not encourage such unrespectable
instincts," she replied.

Lady Tanagra looked at her quickly, noting the flatness of her voice.

"A wise hen should never brood upon being a hen," she remarked
oracularly.

Patricia laughed. "It is all very well for Dives to tell Lazarus that
it is noble to withstand the pangs of hunger," she replied.

"Now let us go and get tea," said Lady Tanagra, as she turned the car
into the road running between Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.

"Tea!" cried Patricia, "why it's past five."

"Tea is a panacea for all ills and a liquid for all hours. You have
only to visit a Government Department for proof of that," said Lady
Tanagra, as she descended from the car and walked towards the
umbrella-sheltered tea-tables dotted about beneath the trees. "And now
I want to have a talk with you for a few minutes," she said as they
seated themselves at an empty table.

"I feel in the mood for listening," said Patricia, "provided it is not
to be good advice," she added.

"I've been having a serious talk with Peter," said Lady Tanagra.

Patricia looked up at her. Overhead white, fleecy clouds played a game
of hide-and-seek with the sunshine. The trees rustled languidly in the
breeze, and in the distance a peacock screamed ominously.

"I have told him," continued Lady Tanagra, "that I will not have you
worried, and he has promised me not to see you, write to you, telephone
to you, send you messenger-boys, chocolates, flowers or anything else
in the world, in fact he's out of your way for ever and ever."

Patricia looked across at Lady Tanagra in surprise, but said nothing.

"I told him," continued Lady Tanagra evenly, "that I would not have my
friendship with you spoiled through his impetuous blundering. I think
I told him he was suburban. In fact I quite bullied the poor boy. So
now," she added with the air of one who has earned a lifelong debt of
gratitude, "you will