Edmée said she was hungry and dissatisfied in her soul, just as I was, and seeking for something other than a mere man. She craved an affinity. We were interrupted by the gong, and Edmée promised to tell me more anon.

The house seemed as big as the Royal Hotel as Edmée took me down with her. Gaddy was waiting to open the dining-room door for us, and wearing a dinner jacket. Mrs. Crasterton was in evening dress, but well-covered in a big shawl and wrestling with a joint. I sat beside Gaddy. Edmée sat opposite. I was glad of that, as I could feast my eyes on her and I hoped that Gad would not mind my being in long sleeves and such a tiny V that it hardly showed any of my neck. Derek did not appear until after we had gone to the library for coffee.

Edmée retired to dress with Wheeler—Mrs. Crasterton’s personal maid—in attendance. Derek was being babied in the dining-room and elsewhere, I learned from Gaddy, who had charge of me in the library. Edmée and Derek were going to a ball at Lady Somebody’s. This lady herself was chaperoning Edmée as Mrs. Crasterton had a slight chill.

I longed to be helping Edmée to dress, tending her like an altar boy. The incense would have come from my admiration. Derek was all over the place calling to his mother and Gaddy, but I did not catch sight of him. In time he appeared “with ’em all on”, as Gaddy said. I did not let my eyes pop too much on beholding him. Here was the beau—the counterpart—of all the heroines embodied in Edmée. He carried a shining topper and snowy gloves, and was in a cloak sort of coat with wings—too swell for words.

He bowed to me from a distance, but charmingly, and smiled with the loveliest teeth. I felt myself beneath his interest and took care not to obtrude. His mother came in and sat near the fire.

“Is she never going to be ready?” he said impatiently, and after a while threw aside his cloak and I saw the perfection of his slimness in the becoming swallow tails. He cursed his tailor, though I thought he must be a virtuoso.

There was no sign of Edmée. Derek went to the piano in the drawing-room and, after half an hour, sent his mother to find out what was keeping “that pestiferous creature”. He went into the hall as his mother returned, and complained about being saddled with such a confisticated bore as the ball in the first place, and Edmée as a Woman Friday in the second.

“Dekky darling, you mustn’t talk so,” said his mother. “Edmée has great influence with Sir George, and you must keep up these connections.”

“She always foists herself upon me,” grumbled Derek. “Gaddy ought to take his turn. I’d just as soon have stayed at home and played cat’s cradle with the infant prodigy.”

Derek sounded as if he were dissimulating his passion for Edmée. In another ten minutes she “swept into the room”. Her hair was a coiffure in which was a pink rose. She was enveloped in a cloak of gold tissue and chiffon and lace. Derek remarked icily that the cab had been waiting an hour, but Edmée wasn’t worried or hurried by that. She made lovely flirtatious eyes at Gaddy, kissed me and Mrs. Crasterton and departed.