"I?"
"Why not? Where's the harm? But for you, I'd like to know where he'd be!"
"Hush! He might hear you," whispered Madge.
"Not he. Well, will you come?"
Without waiting for an answer, Mrs. Xerxes threw open the door of her sitting-room.
"I've brought Miss Barberry to see you, sir."
Paul Vespan turned his head languidly.
In Mrs. Xerxes' back yard, among battered tins and broken bottles, a Madonna lily had grown up, tall, and strong, and pure. It reminded the poet of Madge Barberry, as he saw her then.
"I have much to thank you for," he said, "though you saved a worthless life."
Madge looked round nervously; but Mrs. Xerxes had disappeared.