her head, and, as Ralph
took a letter from his pocket, and placed his finger upon a certain
sentence, she forestalled him by exclaiming in confusion:

"Now, I know what you're going to say, Mr. Denham! But it was the
day Kit Markham was here, and she upsets one so--with her wonderful
vitality, always thinking of something new that we ought to be doing and
aren't--and I was conscious at the time that my dates were mixed. It had
nothing to do with Mary at all, I assure you."

"My dear Sally, don't apologize," said Mary, laughing. "Men are such
pedants--they don't know what things matter, and what things don't."

"Now, Denham, speak up for our sex," said Mr. Clacton in a jocular
manner, indeed, but like most insignificant men he was very quick to
resent being found fault with by a woman, in argument with whom he was
fond of calling himself "a mere man." He wished, however, to enter into
a literary conservation with Miss Hilbery, and thus let the matter drop.

"Doesn't it seem strange to you, Miss Hilbery," he said, "that the
French, with all their wealth of illustrious names, have no poet who can
compare with your grandfather? Let me see. There's Chenier and Hugo
and Alfred de Musset--wonderful men, but, at the same time, there's a
richness, a freshness about Alardyce--"

Here the telephone bell rang, and he had to absent himself with a smile
and a bow which signified that, although literature is delightful, it
is not work. Mrs. Seal rose at the same time, but remained hovering over
the table, delivering herself of a tirade against party government. "For
if I were to tell you what I know of back-stairs intrigue, and what can
be done by the power of the purse, you wouldn't credit me, Mr. Denham,
you wouldn't, indeed. Which is why I feel that the only work for my
father's daughter--for he was one of the pioneers, Mr. Denham, and on
his tombstone I had that verse from the Psalms put, about the sowers
and the seed.... And what wouldn't I give that he should be alive now,
seeing what we're going to see--" but reflecting that the glories of the
future depended in part upon the activity of her typewriter, she bobbed
her head, and hurried back to the seclusion of her little room, from
which immediately issued sounds of enthusiastic, but obviously erratic,
composition.

Mary made it clear at once, by starting a fresh topic of general
interest, that though she saw the humor of her colleague, she did not
intend to have her laug