Tenterhooks

a Gl

ven him a verbal invitation. It was rude, Bohemian, wanting in good form; it showed an absolute and complete ignorance of the most ordinary and elementary usages of society. It was wanting in common courtesy; really, when one came to think about it, it was an insult. On the other

leasantly, 'We're looking forward to next Saturday, old chap,' pretending to have believed from the

nd Bruce had arrived about a quarter to ten on Sunday evening and asked if the Mitchells had begun din

l letter from Mrs Mitchell, asking them to dinner on the following Thursday

at evening with Edith and Vincy, to see a play that he thought wouldn't be very good. He ha

erheard to have a strenuous and increasing

and wanted to know w

e Zoological Gardens to see the-well-you'll hear what he says. The child's a perfect nuisance. Who put i

ad spoken very firmly to him. He was always strict with his father, and when he was good Bruce

is feet, and pouting, in tears that he wa

him,' continued Bruce.

n my own hous

ply to this rhe

and said in a gentle

r mother what it is you wan

aid Archie, with his hands in his eye

o this time of the even

ee the damne

exclaimed Br

t you this

nsend tau

dreaming of teaching him such things! If she did, of course she must be

w Miss Townsend never

ou got into

ameleon was lovely; and I want to see it. She didn't say I ought to see it. But I want to. I've been wanting to ever since. S

ll-we all know what he is-and in such language! I should have thought a girl like Miss Townsend, who has passed examinations in Germany, and so forth, wo

e aux Camélias some time ago. She was enthusiastic about it. Archie dear, I'll take you to

n't I see

announced

and dress,'

. He was very devoted to both Edith and Bruce, and he was a confidant of both. He sometimes said to Edith that he felt he was just what was wanted in the lit

ford he had taken to writing a little, and painting less. He was very fair, the fairest person one could imagine over five years old. He had pale silk

his that he was an empty-headed fop they

fficiently gilded (as he said), not perhaps exactly to be comfortabl

t pleasure was the study of people. There was nothing cold in his observation, nothing of the cynical analyst. He was impulsive, though very quiet, immensely and ardently sympatheti

d to be no type of person on whom he jarred. People who

ingenuity in trying to avoid them; he only liked intimate friends,

iends of his who did not know her might amuse themselves by being humorous and flippant about Vincy's little Ottleys, but no-one who had ever seen them together could possibly make a mistake. They were an example of the absurdity of a tradition-'the world's' proneness to calumny. Such friendships, when genuine, are never misconstrued. Perha

that Edith told him, and she was glad to hear th

know everyone.

hen they played 'Oranges and Lemons, and the Bells of St Clements,' and so on-their bones seemed to-well, sort of rattle, if you know what I mean. But still perhaps it was only my fancy. Mitchell has such very high spirits, you see, and is determi

Perhaps you will be ask

and remind her of me.

red. She believes in

who'll b

marriage, it's a lottery. They might have roulette, o

dress

her like a country house, and they behave accordingly. Even hide-and-s

iting that I'm going to

e the turning-point of

ere's

your mother gave you,' Bruce remarked

said Edith. 'It's ja

the fashion. It's no us

who gave Bruce a quick

hink. I like the effect,' he s

to fashion. I never was. And I don't see any use whatever in an opera glass that makes everything look smaller instead of larger, and a

ugh it the wrong sid