VOYAGE AND ARRIVAL 25 



she had at lunch disagreed, I have never quite 

 fathomed. 



The name of a great poHtical celebrity cropped up, 

 and the very sound of it wakened in the heart of our 

 loquacious friend the most hallowed memories, dear, 

 delightful, if to be deplored, memories. Ah, no ! She 

 was not blameless, far from blameless. She was proud 

 of that, glad of that. A great friendship with a very 

 great man is almost always a disillusion ; but in this 

 case it was otherwise. The two rose to Olympic 

 heights. Every step taken by the celebrity on the 

 Ladder of Fame he owed to her loving ministrations. 

 They were one in the truest sense of the word. 



" But why did you not marry him ? " asked Cecily, 

 with the utmost banality. 



" He was married already," said Madam, clinching 

 that question. 



There was no switching her off on to any other 

 topic. The Great Man filled her horizon to the ex- 

 clusion of all else, and by the time she took her de- 

 parture we knew the size of his collars, the sort of 

 soap he preferred, why he resigned from the Reform 

 Club, and the back-handed method with which he 

 overcame the intricacies of his evening tie was illus- 

 trated in grim detail. 



" What does your husband say to all this ? " in- 

 quired Cecily, in British matronly astonishment. 



" He doesn't know," Madam whispered. " It hap- 

 pened, you see, before I married — when I was a mere 

 girl." 



And I was reminded, almost to the verge of laughter. 



