itual spirit of scientific curiosity as from simplefriendliness. He was privileged to see Nick's first chapter, ofwhich he formed so favourable an impression that he spokesternly

s independence, and on the possibility of beingsuddenly bored by them; Susy had

ng anyone to take her place?""I think she expected me to do it," said Susy with a touch ofasperity. There were moments when her duty to Clarissa weighed

n't suppose she did; and perhaps Ishouldn't have been, a year ago. But you see"--she hesitated--"Nick's so awfully good: it's made me look; at a lot of thingsdifferently ....""Oh, hang Ni

clapped his hand on his breast-pocket. "Ishould be an ass not to: I've got a wire here saying they musthave it for another month at any price.""What luck!

buy somethingripping for Clarissa."The days passed so quickly and radiantly that, but for herconcern for C

explain her non-appearance. She had, in fact, given no sign of life since herdeparture, save in the

od, and not toforget to feed the mongoose. Susy n

panion laughed, and something in the sound of his laughsuggested that he probably knew as much of Ellie's movements asshe did, if not more. The sense of disgust which the subjectalways roused in her made her look away quickly fr

aged on a philosophic romance, and not a mere novel,seemed the proof of an intrinsic superiority. And if she hadmistrusted her impartiality Strefford's approval would havereassured her. Among their friends Strefford passed as anauthority on such matters: in summing him up his eulogistsalways added: "And you know he writes." As a matter of fact,the paying public had remained cold to his few published pages;but he lived among the kind of peop

on which theirhappiness was based would vanish l

Hickses did, and NickLansing was assail

the Ibis among thepleasure craft of the outer harbour; and the very next evening,as the guests o

with her husband in d

any one interfere with that. Why shouldn't we tell themwe're just

e hanged if I'm going

a didn't.""We'll make them take us to Aquileia anyhow," said Streffordphilosoph

dimensional--but because they never movedabroad without the escort of two private secretaries (one forthe foreign languages), Mr. Hicks'

instead of a sullen glare, Miss Coral Hicks projected on theworld a glance at once confident and critical. She looked sostrong and so assured that Susy, taking her measure in a flash,saw that her position at the head of the procession was notfortuitous, and murmured inwardly: "Thank goodness she's notpretty too!"If she was not pretty, she was well-dressed; and if she wasover

eda last cigarette on their balcony. "She told me this afternoo

n; and shegot so bitten with Oriental archaeology that she took a courselast year at Bryn Mawr. She means to go to Bagdad next spring,and back by the Persian plateau and Tur

thout you or me, she laughed,getting up lazily to go indoors. A broad band of moonlight,dividing her room onto two shadowy halves, lay on the paintedVene

toelude them. She had always admired Strefford's ruthless talentfor using and discarding the human material in his path, but nowshe began to hope that Nick would not remember her suggestion

k would have made Su

udged by her standards, were failures. It was notonly that they were ridiculous; so, heaven knew, were many oftheir rivals. But the Hickses were both ridiculous andunsuccessful. They had consistently resisted the efforts of theexperienced advisers who had first descried them on the horizonand tried to help them upward. They were always taking up thewrong people, giving the w

in a compactlyclinging group of which Eldorada Tooker, the doctor and the twosecretaries formed the outer fringe, and by their view ofthemselves as a kind of collective re-incarnation of some paststate of princely culture, symbolised for Mrs. Hicks in what shecalled "the court of the Renaissanc

elieve I should benice to them even if they we

?" he answered; and for once hisba

les, and he himself preferred tostick to his task. Only now he wrote in the early mornings, sothat on most days they could set out before noon and steam backlate to the low fringe of lights on the lagoon. His workcontinued to progress, and as page was added to page Susyobscurely but surely perceived that each one corresponded w