Page:The Yellow Book - 02.djvu/188

164 "And what did her people think?"

"Her family adored her: they were nice people, very ordinary"

There was a knock at the door and Henry appeared, red-cheeked and smelling of the cold street. Janet rose from her stool to shake hands with him: his entrance was an unpleasant interruption; she thought that his mother too must feel something of the sort, although he was the one thing in the world she loved most.

"How was your play, Harry?"

"Oh, simply wonderful."

"Was the house pretty full?"

"Not very, though people were fairly enthusiastic; but there was a fool of a girl sitting in front of us, I could have kicked her, she would go on laughing."

"Perhaps she thought you were foolish for not laughing!"

"But such a sloppy-looking person had no right to laugh."

"Opinions differ about personal appearance."

"Well, at any rate she had a dirty dress on; the swan's-down round her cloak was perfectly black."

"Ah, now your attack becomes more telling!"

Lady Beamish had not changed her position. When Henry left, Janet feared she might want to stop their confidential talk; but she showed no signs of wishing to go to bed.

"I wish boys would remain boys, and not grow older; they never grow into such nice men, they don't fulfil their promise."

She sat down once more, and went on to tell Janet another story, a love story. When Janet, happy as she had not been for months, kissed her and said good-night, she told her how glad she was that no one else had been with her that evening. Rh