"
"Good-bye, Niddy, old girl. Keep your pecker up. By the way, if you
want a real good tune for a Charity sing-song, a real rouser, try 'Nancy
Lee.'"
He was gone, humming vigorously that new-fangled favourite.
"Sit down, Mr. Vivian," said Lady Enid, looking her right size. "We've
got a lot to say to one another."
"I have to be home at five," replied the Prophet, abstractedly.
Lady Enid begin to appear a trifle thin.
"Why? How tiresome! I didn't think you really meant it."
"It is very, very tiresome."
He spoke with marked uneasiness, and remained standing with the air of
one in readiness for the punctual call of the hangman.
"What is it?" continued Lady Enid, with her usual inquisitiveness.
"I have, as I said, a--a small gathering at home at that hour," said the
Prophet, repeating his formula morosely.
"A gathering--what of?"
"People--persons, that is."
"What--a party?"
"Two parties," replied the Prophet, instinctively giving Mr. Sagittarius
and Madame their undoubted due. "Two."
"Two parties at the same time--and in the afternoon! How very odd!"
"They will look very odd, very--in Berkeley Square," responded the
Prophet, in a tone of considerable dejection.
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