Mrs. Willoughby was, as ever, staunch in her defence, though a recollection of Clarice’s tearful visit with Conway’s arrival for a climax prompted her now and again to laugh in the midst of it.

‘You mistake thoughtlessness for tricks,’ she said.  ’Clarice is only a child as yet.’

‘She has a child’s capacity for emotion, I admit,’ corrected Fielding, ‘but a woman’s knowledge of its use.  The combination is deplorable.’

Fielding inquired about Drake, and was told that he had not been seen lately.  ‘It looks as if he was declining in favour,’ Mrs. Willoughby added.

‘Not necessarily.  The man’s busy—­there’s a company coming out.’

‘A solid one?’

‘Likely to be, since Drake handles it.  I am thinking of taking shares.’

Mrs. Willoughby was surprised.  Fielding seemed to her the last man calculated by nature for dabbling in stocks.

‘You!’ she exclaimed.  Fielding nodded assent.

‘Then don’t do it,’ Mrs. Willoughby flashed out vigorously.  ’Don’t think of it.  Oh, I know those men in the City!  Their friends get ruined, and they—­well, I mustn’t say anything against them, because my husband was one of them, poor dear,—­but they move into larger offices.  Mr. Drake has been asking you to join him?’

’He hasn’t done anything of the sort.  I heard of the matter through quite an independent channel.  However, I am not ruined yet, and the company won’t be floated for another four months.  And, after all, it’s my money.’

Mrs. Willoughby became quiet.

‘Well,’ she said, and she derived some satisfaction from the thought, ’at all events Clarice has dropped talking about him.’

Fielding laughed.

’That means that it’s Mallinson’s turn on the roundabout and nothing more.’

‘Sidney Mallinson has been refused.’

‘Refused!  When?’

‘On the Sunday we lunched at Beaufort Gardens.’

‘Oh!’

Fielding was silent for a moment.  He was thinking that he had met Mallinson of late with unusual frequency here at Mrs. Willoughby’s house.

‘But are you sure?’ he asked.

‘Certain; he told me so himself.  Clarice told me too the day after.’  Mrs. Willoughby began again to laugh.  ’She would have prevented him if she could, but apparently he tried to take her by storm.’

‘Oh!’ exclaimed Fielding.  ’On the Sunday afternoons you say?  Then I was to blame, I am afraid, for I gave him precisely that advice on the Sunday morning.  Of course, I never thought that he would take it.’

Fielding met Sidney Mallinson again and again at the house in Knightsbridge.  He was invited to dinner, but so was Mallinson, and the latter had confidential talks with Mrs. Willoughby.  He dined with some friends at the Savoy and went on in a comfortable frame of mind to a concert; there Mrs. Willoughby joined them, so did Mallinson, and the couple sat side by side and conversed through a song.  ’The height of bad taste,’ commented Fielding in an access of irritation.  The fellow was spoiling his comedy by relinquishing his part.  He drew Mallinson aside as they passed through the hall.