"No, no! Tell me about her."
"Well," said my new friend, "she was one of them, but not like Muriel; a nicer-natured girl altogether, married, and a topping little mother. She said to me once with all her soul in her pretty eyes, 'D'you know, the two wishes of my heart, Colonel Fielding? One is a pearl string down to here. The other is about ten silver-fox skins made into a stole.' I looked at her (she was a picture). I said, 'What rum things to choose for hearts-wishes!' She said, 'Beautiful things?' I said, 'Well, easy to get, anyhow.' She said, 'Very expensive!' I said, 'Not they! They only cost ... money.' We both meant what we said. She was sweeter than Miss Muriel, too. Some of them aren't even as sweet. But all of them remind me of those—er—gaily-coloured flowers—without scent. If I like them, I'm sorry for them. If I don't like them, I'm sorry for the Race. Give me the palest musk-rose..."
From his face he was thinking again of his Carissima.... She meant all sweetness to him.
I said: "But men swarm round those others!"
"Yes; didn't I tell you the other day how weak the average man is on Love? He's all for the lovely ... er ... shell of the Mystery-girl. He adores to be tantalized and baffled by it ... because he doesn't know what that means, until he's ... er ... married and tied to it for life."
"And then?" I asked.
"Then he thinks Love must have been overrated by ... er ... these fiction-writers. Or he imagines that he's quite happy, because no one seems to think he isn't. Or the Muriel 'pretends' to love him and he doesn't know the difference, because he 'never, even in dreams, has seen the things that are more excellent.' Er ... I do talk too much, Miss Matthews; I bore you."
"Indeed you do not," I said. "All the week I have heard nothing discussed but the feeding of the two baby-calves, and the butter-market. Even the most enthusiastic farm-worker likes to go back to the problems of other lives sometimes."
"Still, you look as if I'd ... er ... depressed you."
"Oh, no," I protested. But he had depressed me. If his theories about Muriel were true, she would never make Captain Holiday happy! Wasn't this enough to sadden me?