“If that is so isn’t it rather queer that Mr Rumford should prefer my society to yours?”
“He doesn’t, and you know very well he doesn’t. If you suppose he does then you must be a little madder even than I thought, and I am not conscious of ever having rated your intellectual capacity highly. These men have simply combined to make you the victim of a stupid practical joke. They know you are dull, and have traded on that knowledge to a degree for which I readily admit there is no excuse.”
“You think so?”
“Surely you are not going to be such an idiot as to take their tomfooleries seriously? Use your common-sense—or what stands you in the place of common-sense. Has any one of them ever treated you with sufficient civility to enable you to justify to yourself their ridiculous conduct of this afternoon—the preposterous pose they have taken up? On the contrary, haven’t they studiously ignored your very existence—except on those occasions when they have gone out of their way to laugh at you.”
“That’s true enough. I’m afraid they have not been very nice to me—in the past.”
“In the past! Do you consider, then, that they have treated you nicely in the present—this afternoon—just now, for instance?”
“I am of opinion that they have behaved very horridly to us—including Norah. We should be quite justified in never admitting them into the house again. Were I Norah I should signify my resentment of their conduct in a fashion which they would not be likely to forget. However, tastes differ. It is possible that Norah has her own ideas.”
This was Doris. Then came Eveleen—in almost everything she said there was a meaning which was not upon the surface. She is just a mistress of innuendo.
“There are people who would prefer to occupy the peculiar position of a common butt rather than not be taken notice of at all. Perhaps these gentlemen have counted on the fact. In some men the sense of humour takes such an odd direction.”
Audrey showed that she had a clearer insight into the real inwardness of the matter than all the rest of them put together.