Ian Hay

“ Good-bye!’ She kissed her hostess frigidly. ‘You are looking ten years more than your age to-day. What Captain Conway said about you in his speech was only flattery: you mustn’t believe things like that. I thought I ought to tell you.’
‘Thank you for not forgetting, dear,’ said Mildred meekly.
Laura shook hands heavily with her chairman.
‘Good-bye, Captain Conway,’ she said. ‘You won’t forget about to-morrow.’
‘Is it likely?’ Without a tremor Cradock kissed Laura’s black kid glove, and Laura, with a conscious glance in the direction of her rival, strode out of the window and was no more seen. ”

“ Cradock caught him up quickly.
‘Exactly,’ he said. ‘You’ve hit it, Denny. So long as a man lives at home he has to conform to the laws of the Medes and Persians, and dance attendance on his womankind—at the end of an apron string, so to speak.’ Denny flinched, visibly. ‘But with all respect to my old friend, your charming mother, it’s possible to overdo that sort of thing. In fact, it’s grossly unfair. A man, a man of the world like you, is bound to feel his oats at times. ”

“ The gratification experienced by you in performing such a feat would hardly have been worth the scandal brought upon this eminently respectable household. I fancy you will have to go on keeping your tongue between your teeth indefinitely. ”