"Yes, she sees that he is good," said Mrs. Bowen.
"Oh, she sees that he's something very much more. Mr. Waters is good."
Miss Graham had the best of the argument, and so Mrs. Bowen did not reply.
"I feel," continued the young girl, "as if it were almost a shame to have asked him to go to that silly dancing party with us. It seems as if we didn't appreciate him. I think we ought to have kept him for high aesthetic occasions and historical researches."
"Oh, I don't think Mr. Colville was very deeply offended at being asked to go with us."
"No," said Imogene, with another sigh, "he didn't seem so. I suppose there's always an undercurrent of sadness—of tragedy—in everything for him."
"I don't suppose anything of the kind," cried Mrs. Bowen gaily. "He's had time enough to get over it."
"Do people ever get over such things?"
"Yes—men."
"It must be because he was young, as you say. But if it had happened now?"