ring that they had forgotten the baby); and
three or four bachelors, who seemed contented in any place where they
were allowed to smoke; and one widower, whose manner indicated that any
occasion whatever was gay enough for him; and four or five young women,
who (Meredith explained to John) were of their host's age, and had been
"left over" out of the set he grew up with; and for these the modest
party took on a hilarious and chipper character. "It is these girls that
have let the men go by because they didn't see any good enough; they're
the jolly souls!" the one widower remarked, confidentially. "They've
been at it a long while, and they know how, and they're light-hearted as
robins. They have more fun than people who have responsibilities."

All of these lively demoiselles fluttered about Harkless with
commiserative pleasantries, and, in spite of his protestations, made
him recline in the biggest and deepest chair on the porch, where they
surfeited him with kindness and grouped about him with extra cushions
and tenderness for a man who had been injured. No one mentioned the fact
that he had been hurt; it was not spoken of, though they wished mightily
he would tell them the story they had read luridly in the public prints.
They were very good to him. One of them, in particular, a handsome,
dark, kind-eyed girl, constituted herself at once his cicerone in Rouen
gossip and his waiting-maid. She sat by him, and saw that his needs (and
his not-needs, too) were supplied and oversupplied; she could not let
him move, and anticipated his least wish, though he was now amply able
to help himself; and she fanned him as if he were a dying consumptive.

They sat on Meredith's big porch in the late twilight and ate a
substantial refection, and when this was finished, a buzz of nonsense
rose from all quarters, except the remote corners where the youthful
affianced ones had defensively stationed themselves behind a rampart of
plants. They, having eaten, had naught to do, and were only waiting
a decent hour for departure. Laughing voices passed up and down the
street, and mingled with the rhythmic plashing of Meredith's fountain,
and, beyond the shrubberies and fence, one caught glimpses of the light
dresses of women moving to and fro, and of people sitting bareheaded on
neighboring lawns to enjoy the twilight. Now and then would pass, with
pipe and dog, the beflanneled figure of an undergraduate, home for
vacation, or a trio of youths