Emmeline talked much of the delightful proximity of the Downs; one would have imagined her taking long walks over the breezy uplands to Ban stead or Epsom, or yet further afield The fact was, she saw no more of the country than if she had lived at Brixton.  Her windows looked only upon the surrounding houses and their garden foliage.  Occasionally she walked along the asphalte pavement of the Brighton Road—­a nursemaids’ promenade—­as far as the stone which marks twelve miles from Westminster Bridge.  Here, indeed, she breathed the air of the hills, but villas on either hand obstructed the view, and brought London much nearer than the measured distance.  Like her friends and neighbours, Emmeline enjoyed Sutton because it was a most respectable little portion of the great town, set in a purer atmosphere.  The country would have depressed her.

In this respect Miss Derrick proved a congenial companion.  Louise made no pretence of rural inclinations, but had a great liking for tree-shadowed asphalte, for the results of elaborate horticulture, for the repose and the quiet of villadom.

‘I should like to have a house just like this,’ she declared, on her first evening at “Runnymede,” talking with her host and hostess out in the garden.  ’It’s quite big enough, unless, of course, you have a very large family, which must be rather a bore.’  She laughed ingenuously.  ’And one gets to town so easily.  What do you pay for your season-ticket, Mr. Mumford?  Oh, well! that isn’t much.  I almost think I shall get one.’

‘Do you wish to go up very often, then?’ asked Emmeline, reflecting on her new responsibilities.

’Oh! not every day, of course.  But a season-ticket saves the bother each time, and you have a sort of feeling, you know, that you can be in town whenever you like.’

It had not hitherto been the Mumfords’ wont to dress for dinner, but this evening they did so, and obviously to Miss Derrick’s gratification.  She herself appeared in a dress which altogether outshone that of her hostess.  Afterwards, in private, she drew Emmeline’s attention to this garb, and frankly asked her opinion of it.

‘Very nice indeed,’ murmured the married lady, with a good-natured smile.  ‘Perhaps a little—­’

’There, I know what you’re going to say.  You think it’s too showy.  Now I want you to tell me just what you think about everything—­everything.  I shan’t be offended.  I’m not so silly.  You know I’ve come here to learn all sorts of things.  To-morrow you shall go over all my dresses with me, and those you don’t like I’ll get rid of.  I’ve never had anyone to tell me what’s nice and what isn’t.  I want to be—­oh, well, you know what I mean.’

‘But, my dear,’ said Emmeline, ’there’s something I don’t quite understand.  You say I’m to speak plainly, and so I will.  How is it that you haven’t made friends long ago with the sort of people you wish to know?  It isn’t as if you were in poor circumstances.’