She tried to look pathetic, and succeeded better than Craven had
expected.

"I shall put up my _en tout cas_ then," said Craven very seriously.

Still looking pathetic, she allowed her eyes to stray to a neighbouring
mirror, waited for a moment, then smiled.

"Time's a brute, but there's still plenty of him for me," she said. "And
for you, too."

"He isn't half so unpleasant to men as to women," said Craven. "He makes
a very unfair distinction between the sexes."

"Naturally--because he's a man."

"What did Lady Wrackley say?" asked Craven, returning to their subject.

"Why do you ask specially what she said?"

"Because she has a reputation, a bad one, for speaking her mind."

"She certainly was the least guarded of the 'old guard.' But she said
she loved Lady Sellingworth now, because she was so changed."

"Physically, I suppose."

"She didn't say that. She said morally."

"That wasn't stupid of her."