'Sorry it's cotton,' said Miss Bennett. 'I couldn't get any silk the right colour.'
'Oh, I like cotton, if only it's not called sateen! Good-bye, darling.
You're delightfully quick!'
'Yes, I don't waste time,' said Miss Bennett. 'Mother says, too, that I'm the best shopper in the world.' She turned round to add, 'I'm dying to know why you want to look so pretty. Who is it?'
With a quiet smile, Edith dismissed her.
CHAPTER XI
P.P.C.
'It always seems to me so unlike you,' Aylmer said (he had arrived punctually at twenty minutes to four)—'your extreme fondness for newspapers. You're quite celebrated as a collector of Last Editions, aren't you?'
'I know it's very unliterary of me, but I enjoy reading newspapers better than reading anything else in the world. After all, it's contemporary history, that's my defence. But I suppose it is because I'm so intensely interested in life.'
'Tell me exactly, what papers do you really read?'
She laughed. 'Four morning papers—never mind their names—four evening papers; five Sunday papers: The Academy, The Saturday Review, The Bookman, The World, The English Review.'