"Well, to a certain extent you are right. I wonder, anyhow, that you think so highly of Charlie. My experience of him, you will allow, is greater than yours, and while confessing that at first I found charm in what you call his quickness, his intelligence, I find in him now—especially after our two delightful years of travel—a superficiality and a flippancy that you also, I feel sure, will soon perceive. Frankly, then, Lucia, I do not think of him as one of our habitués, one of our more intimate circle. I hasten to add, however, that I see that it is possible, even probable, that Miss Eddis will do much towards making him more cultivated, more earnest. Shall we for the present dismiss the subject? We are not likely to quarrel over it."
"Especially if we dismiss it," said Lucia. "But with your own admirable frankness, I would just like to add that though your experience of him may be—is—greater than mine, it does not follow that your judgment is more correct. Also I have asked him and Maud to lunch to-morrow. I hope you don't mind."
"Ah, my dear Lucia, how can you think me so infinitesimal?" he said, laughing. "And now let us talk for a moment of a subject far closer to us, and dearer to us both. My darling, you are splendid—you are superb! The chorus of admiration of you from our guests when I saw them off! And the loudest voice in the chorus was Lady Heron's. She was immensely struck by you. Some little phrase of yours—what was it?—ah, yes, about people being only the society-wraiths of their real selves at balls and big parties, took her fancy immensely. She said that we—she was kind enough to say 'we,' but it was mere politeness; she meant you—that we must inaugurate an intellectual regeneration in London."
Lucia looked up quickly
"Did she really say that?" she asked. "What a darling!"
"Indeed she did. I had quite a long talk with her downstairs. Another phrase of hers—'London hates bluestockings, but adores fine minds.' She noticed, too, that nobody played bridge, and said that alone was an intellectual triumph."
Lucia laughed.
"She seems to have been laying it on pretty thick," she remarked.
"Ah, the repeated word always loses its lightness. You would not have said so if you had heard her."
Lucia laughed again.
