Il8 ANGEL PAVEMENT

answers, lying references, missing silk stockings, broken
crockery and ruined meals. For some women this state
of affairs, making comfort and tranquillity impossible,
would have had its compensations, for it would have
provided unlimited material for talk, but Mrs, Der-
singham prided herself on not being the sort of woman
who spends her time discussing the shortcomings of her
servants. Most of her friends prided themselves on this
fact too, and they told one another what they could have
said had they been that sort of women, and then gave
examples. "I know, but listen to this, my clear/' they
all cried at once.

At seven forty-five on the evening of the dinner-party
to which Mr. Golspie had been invited, Mr. Dersingham
was busy being his own butler, attending to the wines,
He poured some claret into one decanter, some Sauterne
into another, and some port into a third, then poured a
little gin and a great deal of French and Italian ver-
mouth into a cocktail shaker, and carried the shaker and
some glasses into the drawing-room. Having clone this,
he remembered the cigarettes and filled the silver cigar-
ette box, a wedding present bearing the Worrell colours
in enamel, with Sahibs and some Turkish that his wife
always said she preferred to any other, no matter what
they happened to be. Then he presented himself with a
cocktail, looked at the fire, which was blazing cheerfully,
looked at the chairs, which were long; low, fat, and
brown, glanced round the room, which seemed to him
a very handsome and friendly place now that the two
shaded lights took away the attention from the great
bleak expanse of wall above, sipped the cocktail, tried
to hum a tune, and began to feel a certain warm glow, a
feeling proper to a host,