"Perhaps your mother would age a little in the process of settling
down."

"That's the last thing she'd think of. Feminine reformations
always start in on the failings of other people. That's why I was
so keen on the husband idea."

"Did you go as far as to select the gentleman, or did you merely
throw out a general idea, and trust to the force of suggestion?"

"If one wants a thing done in a hurry one must see to it oneself.
I found a military Johnny hanging round on a loose end at the
club, and took him home to lunch once or twice. He'd spent most
of his life on the Indian frontier, building roads, and relieving
famines and minimizing earthquakes, and all that sort of thing
that one does do on frontiers. He could talk sense to a peevish
cobra in fifteen native languages, and probably knew what to do if
you found a rogue elephant on your croquet-lawn; but he was shy
and diffident with women. I told my mother privately that he was
an absolute woman-hater; so, of course, she laid herself out to
flirt all she knew, which isn't a little."

"And was the gentleman responsive?"

"I hear he told some one at the club that he was looking out for a
Colonial job, with plenty of hard work, for a young friend of his,
so I gather that he has some idea of marrying into the family."

"You seem destined to be the victim of the reformation, after