Page:Plain Tales from the Hills - Kipling (1889).djvu/28

14 before 'rickshaw days) while she went into the cloakroom. Mrs. Hauksbee came up and said: "You take me in to supper, I think, Mr. Bremmil?" Bremmil turned red and looked foolish: "Ah—h'm! I'm going home with my wife, Mrs. Hauksbee. I think there has been a little mistake." Being a man, he spoke as though Mrs. Hauksbee were entirely responsible.

Mrs. Bremmil came out of the cloak-room in a swansdown cloak with a white "cloud" round her head. She looked radiant; and she had a right to.

The couple went off into the darkness together, Bremmil riding very close to the dandy.

Then said Mrs. Hauksbee to me—she looked a trifle faded and jaded in the lamplight: "Take my word for it, the silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool."

Then we went in to supper.