"I don't quite know that it is," he said.

"You see, I remember a good deal what my mother had to put up with, and it has made me kind of sorry for women who have to do without the things they have been used to.

Now Miss Deringham has had a pretty good time in the old country ?" Deringham moved his head very slightly.

"I scarcely think we need go into that, but it is incontrovertible that the loss of Carnaby would make a difference to her," he said.
Alton sat silent a space, and then while Deringham wondered, smiled a little.

"And she might have kept it but for a very little thing that happened a month or two ago," he said.