"No, mother?"
"No. Are you going to continue to waste your time on Henry Baring?"
"I rather enjoy playing round with him. That's all it amounts to."
"Not at all," said mother in her best manner. "It keeps the others away."
"As, for instance?" I asked politely.
She was getting on my nerves. I didn't mean to marry Henry, but I did mean to carry on my own campaign.
"You know very well that there are only three marriageable men in town. There are eleven débutantes. And—I don't care to be unkind, but at least four of them are—are——"
"I know," I said wearily—"better looking than I am. Go ahead."
"You're not at all ugly," mother put in hastily. "A great many people said nice things about you last night. The only thing I want to impress on you is that Madge will have to come out next year, and that you've been reared with expensive tastes."
"I've got brains. Most of the other eleven haven't."