thing. When I spoke of his ears, you said you'd
get used to them: and when I asked you if you'd noticed----"

"I shan't," said Adele. "I mean, I didn't. However, it's done now.
And, after all, he's very convenient. If we hadn't got married, I
shouldn't have wintered at Pau. And if I hadn't wintered at Pau, I
shouldn't have met Piers."

"True," said Berry, "true. There's something in that." He nodded in
my direction. "D'you find he snores much?"

"Nothing to speak of," said Adele. "Used he to?"

"Like the devil," said Berry. "The vibration was fearful. We had to
have his room underpinned."

"Oh, he's quite all right now," said my wife. "Indeed, as husbands go,
he's--he's very charming."

"You don't mean to say you still love him?"

"I--I believe I do."

"Oh, the girl's ill," said Berry. "Put your head between your knees,
dear, and think of a bullock trying to pass through a turnstile. And
why 'as husbands go'? As a distinguished consort, I must protest
against that irreverent expression."

"Listen," said Adele, laughing. "All women adore ceremonious
attention--even Americans. The ceremonious attentions of the man they
love are the sweetest of all. It's the tragedy of every happy marriage
that, when comradeship comes in at the door, ceremony flies out of the
window. Now, my husband's my king. Once he was my courtier. I
wouldn't go back for twenty million worlds, but--I've got a smile for
the old days."

"I know," said Berry softly. "I know. Years ago Daphne told me the
same. And I tried and tried.... But it wouldn't work somehow. She
was very sweet about it, and very wise. 'Ceremony,' she said, 'gets as
far as the finger-tips.' I vowed I'd carry it further, but she only
smiled.... We retired there and then, ceremoniously enough, to dress
for dinner. I'd bathed and changed and got as far as my collar, when
the stud fell down my back. I pinched it between my shoulder-blades.
At that moment she came to the door to see if I was ready...." He
spread out expressive hands. "They talk about the step from the
sublime to the ridiculous. We didn't use any stairs; we went down in
the lift. After that I gave up trying. A sense of humour, however,
has pulled us through, and now we revile one another."

"And so, you see," said Adele, slipping an arm through mine, "Piers has
wares to offer me which you haven't. The shame of it is, he won't
offer them. Still, he's very nice. The way in