audience. "Anyhow, they keep you human and grant us luckless females a lucid interval in which we can call our souls our own. What you men would be like if you didn't have your drinks and your tubs and all your other multitudinous creature comforts—well, it doesn't stand thinking about. Archie, do you like the curtain tied up with a bow or—oh, of course, it's no use asking you, you materialistic lump." She turned from the long, lean figure sprawling on the wicker chair by the verandah window and appealed to the second member of her audience. "Mr. Meredith, you're a clergyman, you ought to have a soul. Do you like bows or don't you?" "Mr. Meredith, you're a clergyman, you ought to have a soul. Do you like bows or don't you?" Meredith looked up with a faint smile on his grave face. Meredith looked up with a faint smile on his grave face. "I like bows, Mrs. Compton. I hope it's a good sign of my artistic and spiritual development?" "I like bows, Mrs. Compton. I hope it's a good sign of my artistic and spiritual development?" "Yes, it is. I like bows myself. Oh, dear——" She stopped suddenly. "But supposing she's a horror! Supposing she paints and smothers herself in diamonds, and gets hilarious at dinner, and has a shrill voice! Goodness knows, I don't boast about our morals, but we're immoral in our own conventional way, so that it becomes almost respectable, and anything else would shock us frightfully. You know, I think we're running an awful risk." "Yes, it is. I like bows myself. Oh, dear——" She stopped suddenly. "But supposing she's a horror! Supposing she paints and smothers herself in diamonds, and gets hilarious at dinner, and has a shrill voice! Goodness knows, I don't boast about our morals, but we're immoral in our own conventional way, so that it becomes almost respectable, and anything else would shock us frightfully. You know, I think we're running an awful risk." Captain Compton guffawed cheerfully, and the smile still lingered in Owen Meredith's pleasant eyes. Captain Compton guffawed cheerfully, and the smile still lingered in Owen Meredith's pleasant eyes.
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