So the immediate outcome of all this psychological upheaval was that we went on smoking and said nothing more about it.

As far as I remember we started talking about the recruiting muddle, as to which our views most vigorously coincided.
We parted cheerily.

It was only when I got outside the room that the ghastly irony of the situation again made my heart as lead.

We passed by the conservatory and the statuary and down the great staircase, but the ghosts had gone.

Yet I cast a wistful glance at the spot--it was just under that Cuyp with the flashing white horse--where we had sat twenty years ago.