"Since my husband died, I've been so out of everything." And encouraged by the kind eyes in the plain face, she told her story, very simply and briefly.

In the general clatter and hubbub of the table no one overheard or noticed.
"H'm--you're stepping out into the world again as one might step out of a nunnery--after five years.

I rather envy you.

You'll see things fresh.
Whereas we--who have been through the ferment and the horror--" He broke off--"I was at the front, you see, for nearly two years--then I got invalided.

So you've hardly realized the war--hardly known there was a war--not since--since Festubert ?" "It's dreadful!" she said humbly--"I'm afraid I know just nothing about it." He looked at her with a friendly wonder, and she, flushing deeper, was glad to see him claimed by a lively girl on his left, while she fell back on Mr.Parish, the agent, who, however, seemed to be absorbed in the amazing--and agreeable--fact that Lord Buntingford, though he drank no wine himself, had yet some Moet-et-Charidon of 1904 left to give to his guests.