"Don't be bashful, Boardman?" young Mavering called out. "Come in and
show them how I shall look in five minutes."

Mr. Boardman took his introductions with a sort of main-force
self-possession, and then said, "You'll have to look it in less than five
minutes now, Mavering. You're come for."

"What? Are they ready?"

"We must fly," panted Mrs. Saintsbury, without waiting for the answer,
which was lost in the incoherencies of all sorts of au revoirs called
after and called back.




VII.

"That is one thing," said Mrs. Saintsbury, looking swiftly round to see
that the elder Mavering was not within hearing, as she hurried ahead with
Mrs. Pasmer, "that I can't stand in Dan Mavering. Why couldn't he have
warned us that it was getting near the time? Why should he have gone on
pretending that there was no hurry? It isn't insincerity exactly, but it
isn't candour; no, it's uncandid. Oh, I suppose it's the artistic
temperament--never coming straight to the point."

"What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Pasmer eagerly.

"I'll tell you sometime." She looked round and halted a little for Alice,
who was walking detached and neglected by the preoccupation of the two