“But then you are a most unusual woman.”
“I don’t want to be unusual, laddie. I do try so hard not to be. If there is one thing I dislike more intensely than another it is an unusual woman.”
“Then you are very perverse. I wonder what effect it would have if you did your hair higher.”
“I will try if you like; but I know——”
“What do you know?” said Jim, sternly.
“That I never look quite so maternal as when I have it over my ears.”
“Well, it’s a serious matter. I look like being driven to get a new mother.”
“There is a scarcity of good ones, my son.”
Jim scanned the tiny sitting-room with a very critical look.
“Upon my word,” said he, “that little rosewood piano and that little effort of Monsieur Gillet’s are the only decent things in it.”