"'My other visitor,' she said, hesitated a moment and was out of the room, leaving me to study her furniture and the coffee machine that bubbled on the table. She had left the door a little ajar and I heard all too plainly the sound of a kiss and then a man's voice. I thought it was rather a jolly voice.
'I'm tired, little Fanny; oh! I'm tired to death. This new paper is the devil. We've started all wrong. But I shall pull it off. Gods! if I hadn't this sweet pool of rest to plunge into, I'd go off my head! I'd have nothing left to me but headlines. Take my coat; there's a dear. I smell coffee.'
"I heard a movement as though Fanny had checked her visitor almost at the door of the room I was in. I heard her say something very quickly about a brother.
"'Oh, Damn!' said the man very heartily. 'Not another of 'em! How many brothers have you got, Fanny? Send him away. I've only got an hour altogether, my dear——'
"Then the door closed sharply—Fanny must have discovered it was ajar—and the rest of the talk was inaudible.
"Fanny reappeared, a little flushed and bright-eyed and withal demure. She had evidently been kissed again.
"'Harry,' she said, 'I hate to ask you to go and come again, but that other visitor—I'd promised him first. Do you mind, Harry? I'm longing for a good time with you, a good long talk. You get your Sundays, Harry? Well, why not come here at three on Sunday when I'll be quite alone and we'll have a regular good old tea? Do you mind, Harry?'
"I said I didn't. In that flat ethical values seemed quite different to what they were outside.
"'After all, you did ought to have written first,' said Fanny, 'instead of just jumping out on me out of the dark.'
"There was no one in the hall when she showed me out and not even a hat or coat visible. 'Give me a kiss, Harry,' she said and I kissed her very readily. 'Quite sure you don't mind?' she said at her door.