I$j4 ANGEL PAVEMENT

saying I'll cut most of it out—but—well, you know what
happens/'

Miss Verever, wearing her most peculiar smile, leaned
forward, caught the eye of her hostess, and said: "But
what does happen, my dear?"

Mrs. Dersingham was able to escape, however, by
plunging at once into the talk at the other end of the
table, as if she had not heard Miss Verever'$ inquiry,
"Oh, have you been reading that?" she cried across the
table to Mrs. Trape, who did not look as if she had
spoken for weeks, but nevertheless had actually just
conjured out several remarks. "No, I haven't read it,
and I don't mean to." But did Agnes mean to bring the
cutlets?

The talk at Mr. Dersingham's end, as we have guessed,
had suddenly turned literary. Mrs. Trape had just read
a certain book. It was, she added, apparently throwing
her voice into the claret decanter, a very clever book,
Mr. Dersingham had not read this book, and did not
hesitate to say that it did not sound his kind of book,
for after a jolly good hard day in the office he found such
books too heavy going and preferred a detective story.
Mrs. Pearson was actually reading a book, had been
reading it that very afternoon, had nearly finished it and
was enjoying it immensely.

"And I'm sure it's a story you'd like, Mr. Dersing-
ham," she cried, "even though there aren't any detectives
in it. I could hardly put it down. It's all about a girl
going to one of those Pacific Islands, one of those lovely
coral and lagoon places, you know, and she goes there to
stay with an uncle because she's lost all her money, and
when she gets there she finds that he's drinking terribly,
and so she goes to another man—but I mustn't spoii it