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great deal more to Hester than it does to you, Clive. You care for all sorts of things that you will get here in the country; tennis and birds and gardening; while Hester is a typical London girl—as typical as I used to be; only I have drained my London cup and she is in the middle of hers. It is wonderful of her, Clive, and perhaps I realize how wonderful more than you do; and I own, darling, that it troubles me lest you have not counted the cost of it to her.’

Had she succeeded? She listened to the specious, the perfidious note of her own voice after it had ceased and wondered if Clive had not heard it too. She gagged and pinioned and laid herself at Hester’s feet, as he had forced her to do; and could she really make him believe that she relished the position?

‘But she isn’t giving up London, Mummy,’ he said. Gravely, his eyes turned from her, he accepted her words at their face value. ‘Not in any way that would mean such cost to her. I did count it all, I promise you, and I wouldn’t have accepted it from her if it had meant the loss of her London life. But that’s the good fortune of your being so near. She can go up to town every day if she likes, and have her friends with her constantly. Gales will be com-