Page:No More Parades (Albert & Charles Boni).djvu/173

 said again upwards, if I could find men like that, that would be just heaven where there is no marrying But, of course, she went on almost resignedly, he would not be faithful to you And then: one would have to stand it

She sat up so suddenly in her chair that beside her, too, Major Perowne nearly jumped out of his wicker-work, and asked if he had come back She exclaimed:

"No, I'd be damned if I would I'd be damned, I'd be damned, I'd be damned if I would Never. Never. By the living God!"

She asked fiercely of the agitated major:

"Has Christopher got a girl in this town You'd better tell me the truth!"

The major mumbled:

"He No  He's too much of a stick He never even goes to Suzette's Except once to fetch out some miserable little squit of a subaltern who was smashing up Mother Hardelot's furniture

He grumbled:

"But you shouldn't give a man the jumps like that Be conciliatory, you said He went on to grumble that her manners had not improved since she had been at Yssingueux-les-Pervenches and then went on to tell her that in French the words yeux des pervenches meant eyes of periwinkle blue. And that was the only French he knew, because a Frenchman he had met in the train had told him so and he had always thought that if her eyes had been periwinkle blue "But you're not listening Hardly polite, I call it," he had mumbled to a conclusion

She was sitting forward in her chair still clenching her hand under her chin at the thought that perhaps