"Women!" called Toots Hayden. She was still posed, but she had stopped

playing. Mrs. Haverford's eyes rested on her a moment, disapprovingly.

"What do you say, Natalie?" Audrey asked.

"I hadn't thought about it. Money, probably."

"You are all wrong," said Audrey, and lighted a fresh cigaret. "They

want different things at different ages. That's why marriage is such

a rotten failure. First they want women; any woman will do, really. So

they marry--any woman. Then they want money. After that they want power

and place. And when they've got that they begin to want--love."

"Good gracious, Audrey, what a cynical speech!" said Mrs. Mackenzie. "If

they've been married all that time--"

"Oh, tut!" said Audrey, rudely.

She had the impulse of the unhappy woman to hurt, but she was rather

ashamed of herself, too. These women were her friends. Let them go on

believing that life was a thing of lasting loves, that men were true

to the end, and that the relationships of life were fixed and permanent

things.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I was just being clever! Let's talk about the

war. It's the only thing worth talking about, anyhow."

In the dining-room Clayton Spencer, standing tall and erect, had

watched the women go out. How typical the party was of Natalie, of her

meticulous care in small things and her indifference or real ignorance

as to what counted. Was it indifference, really, or was it supreme

craftiness, the stupidity of her dinners, the general unattractiveness

of the women she gathered around her, the ill-assortment of people who

had little in themselves and nothing whatever in common?

Of all the party, only Audrey and the rector had interested him

even remotely. Audrey amused him. Audrey was a curious mixture of

intelligence and frivolity. She was a good fellow. Sometimes he thought

she was a nice woman posing as not quite nice. He didn't know. He was

not particularly analytical, but at least she had been one bit of cheer

during the endless succession of courses.

The rector was the other, and he was relieved to find Doctor Haverford

moving up to the vacant place at his right.

"I've been wanting to see you, Clay," he said in an undertone. "It's

rather stupid to ask you how you found things over there. But I'm going

to do it."

"You mean the war?"

"There's nothing else in the world, is there?"

"One wouldn't have thought so from the conversation here to-night."




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