ove inadequate, while, incongruously enough,
it was the fact that he had made some kind of beginning by taking them,
which justified his increasingly impatient aspirations.

Carrissima, arriving with Phoebe at half-past four, was prepared to
admire everything. She was taken first to the small consulting-room,
and shown various kinds of apparatus for the administration of ether,
chloroform and gas, then to the waiting-room, where Phoebe poured out
tea. Mrs. Lawrence Faversham, for her part, was more critical. She
insisted that Mark had paid more than the furniture was worth. Much of
it was fit only for the dusthole! The curtains, for instance, were
falling to pieces, and in any case he positively was bound to invest in
a new carpet.

"Look at the darns!" she cried. "It must have served for generation
after generation of physicians. It is enough to put any patient off!
Whatever you do without, you really must have a new carpet."

"Don't you think I could rub along with the old one for the present?"
asked Mark, turning to Carrissima, who, however, felt she must agree
with her sister-in-law.

"Such a fuss about seven or eight guineas," said Phoebe. "If you won't
buy one I shall have to make you a present."

"Well, then," exclaimed Mark suddenly, "suppose you and Carrissima help
me choose it. I am a perfect idiot at that sort of thing. Where shall
we go?"

"You would never ask such a question," said Carrissima, looking
wonderfully happy as she sat holding her cup and saucer, "if you had
any real feeling for the Art of Shopping. We will go everywhere. The
first thing is to land yourself in the neighbourhood--then you plunge.
The idea of making up your mind where to buy a thing before you start.
That's not the way. Do it thoroughly and see all that is to be seen."

"When shall we go," asked Mark, "since I mustn't ask where?"

"Any afternoon you like to name next week!"

"It is evidently going to be a long job," said Mark. "Suppose we say
Monday afternoon. I will call for Phoebe at three in a taxi, then we
will make for Grandison Square."

Carrissima left Weymouth Street in the highest spirits, and at last
began to wonder whether her long patience was by way of being rewarded.
When Monday arrived she actually put on her hat--her most becoming
hat--before the appointed time, and as she sat waiting for Mark and
Phoebe Colonel Faversham looked into the dining-room.

"Oh, ah, Carrissima!" he said; "it oc