"So glad you could come."
"Good-bye--don't forget that you and Colonel Ogden are lunching with us
next Saturday."
"No, of course not, so many thanks."
"Good-bye----"
"Over at last!" Mrs. Ogden leant back in her chair with a sigh that
bespoke complete satisfaction. She beamed on her husband.
He smiled. "Went off jolly well, Mary!" He was anxious to make up for
the morning.
"Yes, it was a great success, I think. Don't you think it went off very
well, James?"
The colonel twitched; he longed to say: "Damn it all, Mary, haven't I
just told you that I think it went off well!" But he restrained himself.
Mary continued: "Well, dear, the Routledges always did have a talent for
entertaining. I can remember at Chesham when I was Joan's age----"
2
Sir Robert and Lady Loo were driving swiftly towards Moor Park behind
their grey cobs. "Talent that youngster has for fiddle playing, Emma!"
"Yes, I suppose so. The mother's a silly fool of a woman, no more brains
than a chicken, and what a snob!"
"Ugly monkey, the elder daughter."
"Joan? Oh, do you think so?"
"Awful!"
"Wait and see!" said Lady Loo with a thoughtful smile.
Elizabeth walked home between her brother and the little violin master;
she was depressed without exactly knowing why. The little violin master
waved his hands.
"Milly is a genius; I have got a real pupil at last, at last! You wait
and see, she will go far. What tone, what composure for so young a
child?"
"Joan is like a young colt!" said Elizabeth to herself. "Like a young
colt that somehow isn't playful--Joan is a solemn young colt, a
thoughtful colt, a colt wise beyond its months." And she sighed.