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would never see the light of day. Anelida was quiet, well-mannered and, Miss Bellamy supposed, much overcome by the honour that was being paid her.That was the kindest interpretation to put upon her somewhat ungushing response. “Not much temperament
there
,” Miss Bellamy thought and from her this was not a complimentary assessment. She grew more and more cordial.
    Octavius returned from a brief shopping expedition and was a success. On being introduced by Anelida — quite prettily, Miss Bellamy had to admit — he uncovered his dishevelled head and smiled so broadly that his face looked rather like a mask of comedy.
    “But what a pleasure!” he said, shaping his words with exquisite precision. “May we not exclaim
’Hic ver assiduum’
since April herself walks in at our door?”
    Miss Bellamy got the general trend of this remark and her spirits rose. She thanked him warmly for his telegram and he at once looked extremely pleased with himself. “Your husband and your ward,” he said, — “told us of the event and I thought, you know, of the many delicious hours you have given us and of how meagre a return is the mere striking together of one’s hands.” He looked sideways at her. “An old fogey’s impulse,” he said and waved it aside. He made her a little bow and put his head on one side. Anelida wished he wouldn’t.
    “It was
heaven
of you,” said Miss Bellamy. “
So
much pleasure it gave, you can’t think! And what’s more I haven’t thanked you for finding that
perfect
picture for Dicky to give me, nor,” she improvised on the spur of the moment, “for that heavenly copy of…” Maddeningly, she had forgotten the author of Charles’s purchase and of the quotation in the telegram. She marked time with a gesture indicating ineffable pleasure and then mercifully remembered. “Of Spenser,” she cried.
    “You admired the Spenser? I’m so very glad.”
    “
So
much. And now,” she continued with an enchanting air of diffidence, “I’m going to ask you something that you’ll think quite preposterous. I’ve come with an invitation. You are, I know,
great
friends of my ward’s — of Dicky’s — and I, like you, am a creature of impulse. I want you both—
please
—to come to my little party this evening. Drinks and a handful of ridiculous chums at half-past six. Now please be very sweet and spoil me on my birthday. Please, say yes.”
    Octavius turned quite pink with gratification. He didn’t hear his niece who came near to him and said hurriedly, “Unk, I don’t think we…”
    “I have never,” Octavius said, “in my life attended a theatrical party. It is something quite outside my experience. Really it’s extraordinarily kind of you to think of inviting us. My niece, no doubt, is an initiate. Though not at such an exalted level, I think, Nelly, my love?”
    Anelida had begun to say, “It’s terribly kind…” but Miss Bellamy was already in full spate. She had taken Octavius impulsively by the hands and was beaming into his face. “You will? Now,
isn’t
that
big
of you? I
was
so afraid I might be put in my place or that you would be booked up. And I’m
not
! And you
aren’t
! Isn’t that wonderful!”
    “We are certainly, free,” Octavius said. “Anelida’s theatre is not open on Monday evenings. She had offered to help me with our new catalogue. I shall be enchanted.”
    “Wonderful!” Miss Bellamy gaily repeated. “And now I must run.
Au revoir
, both of you. Till this evening!”
    She did, almost literally, run out of the shop filled with a delicious sense of having done something altogether charming. “Kind!” she thought. “That’s what I’ve been. Kind as kind. Dicky will be so touched. And when he sees that
rather
dreary
rather
inarticulate girl in his own setting — well, if there
has
been anything, it’ll peter out on the spot.”
    She saw the whole thing in a gratifying flash of clairvoyance: the last fumes of temperament subsided in the sunshine