'Well, I think it's wicked of you to encourage all this frivolity. And what price _The Queen, Horrie Notes, or The Tatler_?'
'And does Archie show any of this morbid desire for journalism?'
'Oh yes. He takes in _Chums and Little Folks_.'
'And I see you're reading _Rhythm_. That's Vincy's fault, of course.'
'How do you find time for all this culture?'
'I read quickly, and what I have to do I do rather quickly.'
'Is that why you never seem in a hurry? I think you're the only leisured-looking woman I know in London.'
'I do think I've solved the problem of labour-saving; I've reduced it to a science.'
He was beginning to get carried away. He stood up and looked out of the window. The pink and white hyacinths were strongly scented in the warm air. He turned round.
She said demurely: 'It will be nice weather for you to go away now, won't it?'
'I don't think so.' He spoke impulsively. 'I shall hate it; I shall be miserable.'
'You're dying to ask me something,' he said.
'Which am I dying to ask you: _where_ you're going, or _why_ you're going?' She gave her most vivid smile. He sat down with a sigh. People still sigh, sometimes, even nowadays.
'I don't know where I'm going; but I'll tell you why.... I'm seeing too much of you.'
'You see, Mrs Ottley, seeing a great deal of you is very entrancing, but it's dangerous.'
'Well--your society--you see one gets to feel one can't do without it, do you see?'
He looked at her. 'You mean there's no reason why we shouldn't keep on going to plays with Bruce, dining with Bruce, being always with Bruce?' (Bruce and Aylmer had become so intimate that they called each other by their Christian names.) 'Don't you see, it makes one sometimes feel one wants more and more of you--of your society I mean. One could talk better alone.'
'But you can come and see me sometimes, can't you?'
'Yes; that's the worst of all,' he answered, with emphasis.
Aylmer spoke decidedly: 'I'm not a man who could ever be a tame cat. And also I'm not, I hope, a man who--who would dare to think, or even wish, to spoil--to--'
'And is that really why you're going?' she asked gently.
'And shall you soon forget all about it?'
He changed his position and sat next to her on the sofa.
'And so you won't miss me a bit,' he said caressingly. 'You wouldn't care if you never saw me again, would you?'