‘Yes,’ she said thoughtfully, and put her chin in the palm of her left hand.

’And as for the stage, why, nearly every one goes on the stage by chance.  It just occurs, that’s all.  And moreover I guarantee that the parents of fifty per cent. of all the actresses now on the boards began by thinking what a terrible blow it was to them that their daughters should want to do that.  Can’t you see what I mean?’ He emphasised his words more and more.  ‘I’m certain you can.’

She signified assent.  It seemed to her, as he continued to talk, that for the first time she was listening to natural convincing common sense in that home of hers, where existence was governed by precedent and by conventional ideas and by the profound parental instinct which meets all requests with a refusal.  It seemed to her that her children, though to outward semblance they had much freedom, had never listened to anything but ‘No,’ ‘No, dear,’ ‘Of course you can’t,’ ’I think you had better not,’ and ‘Once for all, I forbid it.’  She wondered why this should have been so, and why its strangeness had not impressed her before.  She had a distant fleeting vision of a household in which parents and children behaved like free and sensible human beings, instead of like the virtuous and the martyrised puppets of a terrible system called ’acting for the best.’  And she thought again what an extraordinary man Arthur Twemlow was, strong-minded, clear-headed, sympathetic, and delightful.  She enjoyed intensely the sensation of their intimacy.

‘Jack will never agree,’ she said, when she could say nothing else.

‘Ah!  “Jack!"’ He slightly imitated her tone.  ’Well, that remains to be seen.’

‘Why do you take all this trouble for Milly?’ she asked him.  ’It’s very good of you.’

‘Because I’m a fool, a meddling ass,’ he replied lightly, standing up and stroking his clothes.

‘You aren’t,’ her eyes said, ‘you are a dear.’

‘No,’ he went on, in a serious tone, ’Milly just wanted me to speak to you, and after all I didn’t see why I shouldn’t.  It’s no earthly business of mine, but—­oh, well!  Good-bye, I must be getting along.’

‘Have you got an appointment to keep?’ she questioned him.

‘No—­not an appointment.’

’Well then, you will stay a little longer.  The trap will be back quite soon.’  Her voice seemed playfully to indicate that, as she had submitted to his domination, so he must submit now to hers.  ’And if you will excuse me one moment, I will go and take off this thick jacket.’

Up in the bedroom, as she removed her coat in front of the pier-glass, she smiled at her image timorously, yet in full content.  Milly’s prospects did not appear to her to have been practically improved, nor could she piece out of Arthur Twemlow’s conversation a definite argument; nevertheless she felt that he had made her see something more clearly than heretofore, that he had induced in her, not by logic but by persuasiveness, a mood towards her children which was brighter, more sanguine, and even more loving, than any in her previous experience.  She was glad that she had left him alone for a minute, because such familiar treatment of him somehow established definitely his status as a friend of the house.