woman that--without the crude words."

"I don't know what you imagine between them," said Mrs. Nettlepoint.

"Well, nothing," I allowed, "but what was visible on the surface. It
transpired, as the newspapers say, that they were old friends."

"He met her at some promiscuous party--I asked him about it afterwards.
She's not a person"--my hostess was confident--"whom he could ever think
of seriously."

"That's exactly what I believe."

"You don't observe--you know--you imagine," Mrs. Nettlepoint continued to
argue. "How do you reconcile her laying a trap for Jasper with her going
out to Liverpool on an errand of love?"

Oh I wasn't to be caught that way! "I don't for an instant suppose she
laid a trap; I believe she acted on the impulse of the moment. She's
going out to Liverpool on an errand of marriage; that's not necessarily
the same thing as an errand of love, especially for one who happens to
have had a personal impression of the gentleman she's engaged to."

"Well, there are certain decencies which in such a situation the most
abandoned of her sex would still observe. You apparently judge her
capable--on no evidence--of violating them."

"Ah you don't understand the shades of things," I returned. "Decencies
and violations, dear lady--there's no need for such heavy artillery! I
can perfectly imagine that without the least immodesty she should have