he came to sit down near her. "Most people are, at this time of year.
One ought to be truly grateful for even five minutes of anybody's time.
I remember, ages ago, when I was one of the busy ones, I used to expect
almost servile thankfulness for any little minute I doled out. How
things change!"

She did not sigh, but laughed, and, without giving him time to speak,
added:

"Which of my other books did you look at?"

"I saw you had Maspero."

"Oh, I got that simply because I had met you. It turned my mind towards
Egypt, which I have never seen, although I've yachted all over the
place. Last night, after we had said good night, I couldn't sleep; so I
sat here and read Maspero for a while, and thought of your Egyptian
life. I didn't mean to be impertinent. One has to think of something."

"Impertinent!"

Her tone, though light, had surely been coloured with apology.

"Well, people are so funny--now. I remember the time when lots of them
were foolish in the opposite way. If I thought of them, they seemed to
take it as an honour. But then I wasn't thirty-eight, and I was in
society."

The German waiter came in with tea. When he had arranged it and gone
out, Nigel said, with a certain diffidence: