And--talking of engagements--I daresay you know that
mine is broken off?"
"No, I didn't know that."
"It is. Mr. Kite and I are only friends now. He'll look in
presently, I think. I should like you to meet him, if you don't
mind."
"Of course I shall be very glad."
"All this, you know," said Olga, with a laugh, "would be monstrously
irregular in decent society, but decent society is often foolish,
don't you think?"
"To be sure it is," Piers answered genially, "and I never meant to
find fault with your preference for a freer way of living. It is
only--you say I may speak freely--that I didn't like to think of
your going through needless hardships."
"You don't think, then, it has done me good?"
"I am not at all sure of that."
Olga lay back in her chair, as if idly amused.
"You see," she said, "how we have both changed. We are both much
more positive, in different directions. To be sure, it makes
conversation more interesting. But the change is greatest in me. You
always aimed at success in a respectable career."
Otway looked puzzled, a little disconcerted.
"Really, is that how I always struck you? To me it's new light on my
own character."
"How did you think of yourself, then?" she asked, looking at him
from beneath drooping lids.
"I hardly know; I have thought less on that subject than on most."
Again there came a silence, long enough to be embarrassing.
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