At one moment Dona Rita turned her head to the room and called out to the maid, "Give me my hand-bag off the sofa." At this the other was heard plainly, "No, no," and then a little lower, "You have no tact, Rita.

.

.

." Then came her argument in a low, penetrating voice which I caught, "Why not?
Between such old friends." However, she waved away the hand-bag, he calmed down, and their voices sank again.

Presently I saw him raise her hand to his lips, while with her back to the room she continued to contemplate out of the window the bare and untidy garden.