Steering wide of politics, 'I gather,' he said, with his air of amiable boredom, 'that you were discussing what used in the days of my youth to be called a lady's "conversational powers."'
'I forbid you to apply such deadly phrases to my friend,' Mrs. Freddy denounced him. 'Your friend, too!'
'I'll prove my title to the distinction by proclaiming that she has the subtlest art a woman can possess.'
'Ah, that's more like it!' said Mrs. Freddy, gaily. 'What is the subtlest art?'
'The art of being silent without being dull.'
If there was any sting in this for the lady nearest him, she gave no sign of making the personal application.
'Now I expressly forbid your encouraging Vida in silence! Most men like to be amused. You know perfectly well you do!'
'Ah, yes,' he said languidly, catching Haycroft's eye and almost making terms with him upon a common ground of masculine understanding. 'Yes, yes. It is well known what children we are. Pleased with a rattle!' Then, as if fearing he might be going too far, he smiled that disarming smile of his, and said good-humouredly, 'I know now why you are called a good hostess.'
'Why?' asked the lady a little anxiously, for his compliments were not always soothing.
A motion towards the watch-pocket. 'No one, to look at you, would suppose that your spirit was racked between the clock and the door.'