'Why do you think he's gone away?' he rather irritatingly persisted.

'I haven't the slightest idea.'

'Do you know, Edith, it has sometimes occurred to me that if--that, well--well, you know what I mean--if things had turned out differently, and you had done as I asked you--'

'Well?'

'Why, I have a sort of idea,' he looked away, 'that Aylmer might--well, might have proposed to you!'

'Oh! _What_ an extraordinary idea!'

'But he never did show any sign whatever, I suppose of--well, of--being more interested in you than he ought to have been?'

'Good heavens, no!'

'Oh, of course, I know that--you're not his style. You liked him very much, didn't you, Edith?...'

'I like him very much now.'

'However, I doubt if you ever quite appreciated him. He's so full of ability; such an intellectual chap! Aylmer is more a man's man. _I_ miss him, of course. He was a very great friend of mine. And he didn't ever at all, in the least--seem to--'

'Seem to what?'

'It would have been a very unfair advantage to take of my absence if he had,' continued Bruce.

'Oh!'

'But he was incapable of it, of course.'

'Of course.'

'He _never_ showed any special interest, then, beyond--'

'Never.'

'I was right, I suppose, as usual. You never appreciated him; he was not the sort of man a woman _would_ appreciate ... But he's a great loss to me, Edith. I need a man who can understand--Intellectual sympathy--'

'Mr Vincy!' announced the servant.

Vincy had not lost his extraordinary gift for turning up at the right moment. He was more welcome than ever now.