I have a faint hope that by taking her in hand and interesting her in our work--which _entre nous deux_--is turning out to be very profitable--I may sober her and regularize her.

No doubt in 1950 most women will talk as she does to-day, but the advance is too abrupt.

It not only robs _her_ parents of all happiness, but it upsets _my_ mother.

She now wrings her hands over her own past and fears that by working so strenuously for the emancipation of women she has assisted to breach the dam--Can't you imagine the way the old cats of both sexes go on at her ?--the dam which held up female virtue, and that Society now will be drowned in a flood of Free Love..." _Vivie_: "Well! We'll give her a six months' trial here, and see if our mix-up of advice in Law, Banking, Estate management, Stock-and-share dealing, Divorce, Private Enquiries, probate, etc., does not prove _much_ more interesting than an illicit connection with a hare-brained architect....

If she proves impossible you'll pack her off and Vivie shall return and D.V.Williams go abroad....
Don't you think there is something that ought to win over Providence in that happily chosen name?
_D.V._ Williams?
And my mother once actually called herself 'Vavasour.' "Well, then, barring accidents and the unforeseen, it's agreed I go on my holiday next Saturday, to return never no more--perhaps--?
--" _Norie_ (with a sigh): "Yes!" _Vivie_: "How's your mother ?" _Norie_: "Oh, as to her, I'm glad to say '_much_ better.' When I can get away, after the new clerks and Beryl are installed and everything is going smoothly, I shall take her to Switzerland, to a deliciously quiet spot I know and nobody else knows up the Goeschenenthal.