“He is a friend of yours?”

She sat up straight and pulled in her chin.

“I used to think he was, but now I’m not so sure-because of his giving in to Rosamond like that. He’s in love with her, you know. At least I suppose he is, because he looks at her that way, and it’s all right in a book. Gloria Gilmore and Mavis la Rue make it sound lovely, but when it’s someone you thought was your friend, and then you find out he is nothing but a trampled worm, it just looks sloppy.”

So Nicholas was sloppy about Rosamond. Craig was finding Miss Jenny Maxwell quite informative. The theme fascinated him. He pursued it.

“There’s a general consensus of opinion that people in love are apt to look silly-except to each other.”

“Rosamond isn’t in love,” said Jenny with the extremity of scorn. “She wouldn’t have time, for one thing. It’s Nicholas who is in love with her. I don’t suppose she even notices it. Aunt Lydia adores him, so he comes in and out a lot. The aunt he lives with is one of her oldest friends. They both adore Nicholas. The Cunninghams are just next door. Much too close for another house really, but it used to belong to the Crewes-a dower house for the old ladies of the family, with a way through to the garden so that they could come in and out and the family could drop in and visit them. People didn’t seem to get bored with their relations as much as they do now, and everyone thought it was a very nice arrangement. But when the money began to go wrong Aunt Lydia ’s father sold the Dower House, and of course Aunt Lydia minded dreadfully. She would mind if she had to sell a pebble off the drive, so you can imagine what she felt like when it was a whole house absolutely bang next door where she could see strangers going in and out. So it was just as well that she made friends with Miss Cunningham, wasn’t it? There was a brother too, and she fell in love with him-like Romeo and Juliet, you know. And then something happened. I don’t know what it was, because people won’t tell you. That’s one of the really horrid things about being young, and it’s no good their saying it’s the best time of your life, because it’s very- very-” She cast about her for a word and came out with “frustrating!”