things."

"I am glad to hear you say so," said Mr. Carlyon dryly. "And I hope that
jade, Fate, won't play you any tricks."

John Derringham smiled.

"I admit that a woman with money may be useful to me by and by," he
said, "because, as you know, I am always hard up, and presently when I
want to occupy a larger sphere I shall require money for my ends, but
for the time being they serve to divert me as a relaxation; that is
all."

"You are contracting no ties, dear lad?" asked the Professor with one
eyebrow raised, while he shook back his silvery hair. "I had heard
vaguely about your attention to Lady Durrend, but I understand she has
had many preliminary canters and knows the ropes."

John Derringham smiled. "Vivienne Durrend is a most charming woman," he
said. "She has taught me a number of things in the last two years. I am
grateful to her. Next season she is bringing a daughter out--and she has
a wonderful sense of the fitness of things." Then he sipped his tea and
got up and strolled towards the windows.

"Besides," he continued, "I do not admit there are any ties to be
contracted. The Greeks understood the place of women; all this nonsense
of vows of fidelity and exaltation of sentiment in the home cramps a
man's ambitions. It is perfectly natural that he should take a wife if
his position calls for it, because the society in which we move has made
a figurehead of that kind necessary. But that a woman should expect a