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 glad she kept inside the carriage, and didn't join our group on the platform. I've no use for an ill-dressed woman.

We certainly had a very jolly group. Lots of friends had come to see us off. Aunt Agatha, Dorothy and Bob, of course, were there, and half a dozen young men of various degrees of uninterestingness (I don't believe there is such a word as that, but there ought to be). Major Mackworth, whom I had had great difficulty in preventing proposing to me for quite a long time, was hanging round, but I felt I needn't keep my eye on him now, as he couldn't do much on a crowded platform like that. I talked most to Captain Sewell, of the Rangers. If I had been born a German fräulein, I think I should have admired Captain Sewell, of the Rangers. He was rather like a bull-dog, very broad, very strong, very military, with a waxed moustache, and very tight clothes, and a general braced-up sort of look. He hadn't much conversation, but what he had was amusing, because he took himself seriously. Captain Sewell, like Ermyntrude, has no sense of humour. 'London will be quite empty this afternoon,' he was saying, looking round with the kind of air that was capable of ignoring millions. 'Oh, but you'll be here,' I said, with obvious mockery. 'But I shall not,' he said seriously. 'I leave town at once for Scotland. Can't stand London empty.'

'You should have come to the great Durbar,' I