When Soames entered his sister's little Louis Quinze drawing-room, with its small balcony, always flowered with hanging geraniums in the summer, and now with pots of Lilium Auratum, he was struck by the immutability of human affairs.

It looked just the same as on his first visit to the newly married Darties twenty-one years ago.

He had chosen the furniture himself, and so completely that no subsequent purchase had ever been able to change the room's atmosphere.

Yes, he had founded his sister well, and she had wanted it.

Indeed, it said a great deal for Winifred that after all this time with Dartie she remained well-founded.