Man and Maid | Page 6

little friend of mine does when she is attracted--she takes a
fortnight at the sea!"
"The sea would be awful in this weather! I should send for both in

desperation!" and she laughed and began to take an interest in the
furnishings of my flat. She looked over it, and Burton pointed out all its
merits to her (My crutch hurts my shoulder so much to-day I did not
want to move out of my chair). I could hear Burton's remarks, but they
fell upon unheeding ears--Nina is not cut out for a nurse, my poor
Burton, if you only knew--!
When she returned to my sitting room tea was in, and she poured it out
for me, and then she remarked.
"We have grown so awfully selfish, haven't we, Nicholas, but we aren't
such hypocrites as we were before the war. People still have lovers, but
they don't turn up their eyes so much at other people having them, as
they used. There is more tolerance--the only thing you cannot do is to
act publicly so that your men friends cannot defend you--'You must not
throw your bonnet over the windmills'--otherwise you can do as you
please--."
"You had not thought of taking either Jim or Rochester for a lover to
make certain which you prefer?"
Nina looked unspeakably shocked--.
"What a dreadful idea Nicholas!--I am thinking of both seriously, not
only to pass the time of day remember."
"That is all lovers are for, then Nina?--I used to think--."
"Never mind what you thought, there is no reason to insult me."
"Nothing was farther from my desire."
Nina's face cleared, as it had darkened ominously.
"What will you do if, having married Rochester, you find yourself
bored--Will you send for Jim again?"
"Certainly not, that would be disaster. I shan't plunge until I feel pretty
certain I am going to find the water just deep enough, and not too

deep--and if I do make a mistake, well I shall have to stick to it."
"By Jove what a philosopher," and I laughed--She poured out a second
cup of tea, and then she looked steadily at me, as though studying a
new phase of me.
"You are not a bit worse off than Tom Green, Nicholas, and he has not
got your money, and Tom is as jolly as anything, and everybody loves
him, though he is a hopeless cripple, and can't even look decent, as you
will be able to in a year or two. There is no use in having this sentiment
about war heroes that would make one put up with their tempers, and
their cynicism! Everybody is in the same boat, women and men, we
chance being maimed by bombs, and we are losing our looks with
rough work--for goodness sake stop being so soured--."
I laughed outright--it was all so true.
* * *
Friday--Maurice brings people to play bridge every afternoon now.
Nina has gone back to England--having decided to take Jim!
It came about in this way--She flew in to tell me the last evening before
she left for Havre. She was breathless running up the stairs, as
something had gone wrong with the lift.
"Jim and I are engaged!"
"A thousand congratulations."
"Rochester had a dinner for me on Wednesday night. All the jolliest
people in Paris--some of those dear French who have been so nice to us
all along, and some of the War Council and the Ryvens, and so on--and,
do you know, Nicholas--I heard Rochester telling Madame de Clert the
same story about his bon mot when a shell broke at Avicourt--as I had
already heard him tell Admiral Short, and Daisy Ryven!--that decided
me--. There was an element of self-glorification in that modest
story--and a man who would tell it three times, is not for me! In ten

years I should grow into being the listener victim--I could not face it!
So I said good-bye to him in the corridor, before up to my room--and I
telephoned to Jim, who was in his room on the Cambon side, and he
came round in the morning!"
"Was Rochester upset?"
"Rather! but a man of his age--he is forty-two, who can tell a self-story
three times is going to get cured soon, so I did not worry."
"And what did Jim say?"
"He was enchanted, he said he knew it would end like that--give a man
of forty-two rope enough and he'll be certain to hang himself, he said,
and, Oh! Nicholas--Jim is a darling, he is getting quite masterful--I
adore him!"
"Senses winning, Nina! Women only like physical masters."
She grew radiant. Never has she seemed so desirable. "I don't care a fig
Nicholas! If it is senses, well, then, I know it is the best thing in the
World, and