“Restaurant?” 

 “Skating-rink,” said Derek impatiently. “Just after you left for Mentone. Freddie Rooke introduced me.” 

 “Oh, your intellectual friend Mr Rooke knows her?” 

 “They were children together. Her people lived next to the Rookes in Worcestershire.” 

 “I thought you said she was an American.” 

 “I said her father was. He settled in England. Jill hasn’t been in America since she was eight or nine.” 

 “The fact,” said Lady Underhill, “that the girl is a friend of Mr Rooke is no great recommendation.” 

 Derek kicked angrily at a box of matches which someone had thrown down on the platform. 

 “I wonder if you could possibly get it into your head, mother, that I want to marry Jill, not engage her as an under-housemaid. I don’t consider that she requires recommendations, as you call them. However, don’t you think the most sensible thing is for you to wait till you meet her at dinner tonight, and then you can form your own opinion? I’m beginning to get a little bored with this futile discussion.” 

 “As you seem quite unable to talk on the subject of this girl without becoming rude,” said Lady Underhill, “I agree with you. Let us hope that my first impression will be a favorable one. Experience has taught me that first impressions are everything.” 

 “I’m glad you think so,” said Derek, “for I fell in love with Jill the very first moment I saw her!” 

§ 4.

 Parker stepped back, and surveyed with modest pride the dinner-table to which he had been putting the finishing touches. It was an artistic job and a credit to him. 

 “That’s that!” said Parker, satisfied. 

 He went to the window and looked out. The fog which had lasted well into the evening, had vanished now, and the clear night was bright with stars. A distant murmur of traffic came from the direction of Piccadilly. 

 As he stood there, the front-door bell rang, and continued to ring in little spurts of sound. If character can be deduced from 

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