She made no fuss.  There was no implication in her demeanour that she expected to be wept over as a lone widow, or that because she and he had on a time been betrothed, therefore they could never speak naturally to each other again.  She just talked as if nothing had ever happened to her, and as if about twenty-four hours had elapsed since she had last seen him.  He felt that she must have picked up this most useful diplomatic calmness in her contacts with her late husband’s class.  It was a valuable lesson to him:  “Always behave as if nothing had happened —­no matter what has happened.”

To himself he was saying: 

“I’m glad I came up in my motor.”

He seemed to need something in self-defence against the sudden attack of all this wealth and all this superior social tact, and the motor-car served excellently.

“I’ve been hearing a great deal about you lately,” said she with a soft smile, unobtrusively rearranging a fold of her skirt.

“Well,” he replied, “I’m sorry I can’t say the same of you.”

Slightly perilous perhaps, but still he thought it rather neat.

“Oh!” she said.  “You see I’ve been so much out of England.  We were just talking about holidays.  I was saying to Mrs Cotterill they certainly ought to go to Switzerland this year for a change.”

“Yes, Mrs Capron-Smith was just saying—­” Mrs Cotterill put in.

(So that was her name.)

“It would be something too lovely!” said Nellie in ecstasy.

Switzerland!  Astonishing how with a single word she had marked the gulf between Bursley people and herself.  The Cotterills had never been out of England.  Not merely that, but the Cotterills had never dreamt of going out of England.  Denry had once been to Dieppe, and had come back as though from Timbuctoo with a traveller’s renown.  And she talked of Switzerland easily!

“I suppose it is very jolly,” he said.

“Yes,” she said, “it’s splendid in summer.  But, of course, the time is winter, for the sports.  Naturally, when you aren’t free to take a bit of a holiday in winter, you must be content with summer, and very splendid it is.  I’m sure you’d enjoy it frightfully, Nell.”

“I’m sure I should—­frightfully!” Nellie agreed.  “I shall speak to father.  I shall make him—­”

“Now, Nellie—­” her mother warned her.

“Yes, I shall, mother,” Nellie insisted.

“There is your father!” observed Mrs Cotterill, after listening.

Footsteps crossed the hall, and died away into the dining-room.

“I wonder why on earth father doesn’t come in here.  He must have heard us talking,” said Nellie, like a tyrant crossed in some trifle.

A bell rang, and then the servant came into the drawing-room and remarked:  “If you please, mum,” at Mrs Cotterill, and Mrs Cotterill disappeared, closing the door after her.

“What are they up to, between them?” Nellie demanded, and she, too, departed, with wrinkled brow, leaving Denry and Ruth together.  It could be perceived on Nellie’s brow that her father was going “to catch it.”