"But if you dislike him——"
"Why, my dear, doesn't one hate half the men one likes meeting—and all the women!"
Lady Semingham smiled amiably. She did not care to think out what that meant; it was Adela's way, just as it was her husband's way to laugh at many things that seemed to her to afford no opening for mirth. But Adela was not to escape. Semingham himself appeared suddenly at her elbow, and observed,
"That's either nonsense or a truism, you know."
"Neither," said Adela with spirit; but her defence was interrupted by Evan Haselden.
"I'm going," said he, and he looked out of temper. "I've got another place to go to. And anyhow——"
"Well?"
"I'd like to be somewhere where that chap Ruston isn't for a little while."
Adela glanced across. Ruston was still talking to Marjory Valentine.