A. M. Williamson and C. N. Williamson

“ Still, people unfortunately feel bound to do their best. Mrs. Carstairs has done hers. If Sir Humphrey gives you up, she'll thenceforward consider herself free from responsibility, and you free to 'dree your own weird,' whatever that means! As for me, I've no responsibility at all. I don't advise you! In your place I'd do as you're doing. Only I've enough fellow feeling to let you know, in a spirit of comradeship, if I hear the call of an adventure— There, you did the stunt all right that time! A lovely loop the loop! ”

“ Carstairs had ordered him to bring, and asked casually if he'd care to stop in my flat till his man had finished unpacking.
“I don't know how you feel,” I said, “but I always hate the first hour in a new place, with a servant fussing about, opening and shutting drawers and wardrobes. I loathe things that squeak.” ”

“ If you are girl or woman, you can't respectably engage yourself as a companion to a man except by marriage. But you can brighten the life of one, or, indeed, several, of that sex. You can even procure social advantages for munition millionaires. And brighteners, if young, beautiful, and of high position, are worthy of their hire. Now, perhaps, you have an inkling of Mrs. Carstairs' idea. ”

“ She asked for a cigarette, and took it—my last.
“The latest style in my country is to make your smoke ring loop the loop, and do it through the nose,” she informed me calmly. “I can't do it myself yet, but Terry Burns can.”
“Who's Terry Burns?” I asked.
“The man whose life ought to be preserved.”
“It certainly ought,” said I, “if he can make smoke rings loop the loop through his nose. Oh, you know what I mean!”
“He hardly takes enough interest in things to do even that, nowadays,” sighed the old lady from New York, or was it Boston? ”

“ Carstairs had begged him to bring a small parcel which he must deliver by hand to me. She had telegraphed asking me to stop at home, quite a favor, but I couldn't refuse, as I'd tacitly promised to brighten the man. So there I sat, in my favorite frock, when he was ushered into the drawing-room.
Dame Caroline had told me that “Terry” was good-looking, but her description had left me cold, and, somehow or other, I was completely unprepared for the real Terry Burns,
Yes, “real” is the word for him! ”

“ But not knowing leaves you at loose ends, if you're alone in the world, as I am.” Then, having said this, just to indicate that my circumstances conduced to tacit sympathy with his, I hopped like a sparrow to another branch of the same subject. “It's bad not to get what we want, but it's dull not to want anything.” ”

“ Of course I'd 'care' to take you to Haslemere. But I have a better plan. I've persuaded Terry to consult the nerve specialist, Sir Humphrey Hale. He's comparatively easy to persuade, because he'd rather yield a point than bother to argue. That's how I got my excuse to run up to town: to explain the case to Sir Humphrey and have my flat made ready for Terence to live in while he's being treated. ”