"No one is ever hopelessly selfish who is conscious of it," he answered, smiling. "And, after all, it would not do for every one to be always brooding upon the darker side of life."
"In another minute," Molyneux exclaimed, waking up with a start, "I should have been asleep. Whatever have you two been talking about? It was the most soothing hum I ever heard in my life."
"Mr. Brooks was telling me of some new phases of life," she answered.
"It is very interesting, even if it is a little sad."
Molyneux eyed them both for a moment in thoughtful silence.
"H'm!" he remarked. "Dinner is the next phase of life which will interest me. Has the dressing-bell gone yet?"
"You gross person," she exclaimed. "You ate so much tea you had to go to sleep."
"It was the exercise, he insisted.
"You have been standing about all day. I heard you ask for a place without any walking, and where as few people as possible could see you miss your birds."
"Your ears are a great deal too sharp," he said. "It was the wind, then."
"Never mind what it was," she answered, laughing. "You can go to sleep again if you like."