CHAPTER III.
When he had quitted them and Mrs.Dyott had candidly asked if her friend had found him rude or crude, Maud replied--though not immediately--that she had feared showing only too much how charming she found him.

But if Mrs.Dyott took this it was to weigh the sense.

"How could you show it too much ?" "Because I always feel that that's my only way of showing anything.

It's absurd, if you like," Mrs.Blessingbourne pursued, "but I never know, in such intense discussions, what strange impression I may give." Her companion looked amused.

"Was it intense ?" "_I_ was," Maud frankly confessed.
"Then it's a pity you were so wrong.