But Kitty was a simple soul.  “Indeed you couldn’t, Hortense!  I assure you that you’re mistaken.  There’s where you get so wrong about men sometimes.  I have been studying that boy for your sake ever since we got here, and I know him through and through.  And I tell you, you cannot count upon him.  He has not been used to our ways, and I see no promise of his getting used to them.  He will stay capable of outbreaks like that horrid one on the bridge.  Wherever you take him, wherever you put him, no matter how much you show him of us, and the way we don’t allow conspicuous things like that to occur, believe me, Hortense, he’ll never learn, he’ll never smooth down.  You may brush his hair flat and keep him appearing like other people for a while, but a time will come, something will happen, and that boy’ll be conspicuous.  Charley would never be conspicuous.”

“No,” assented Hortense.

Kitty urged her point.  “Why, I never saw or beard of anything like that on the bridge—­that is, among—­among—­us!”

“No,” assented Hortense, again, and her voice dropped lower with each statement.  “One always sees the same thing.  Always hears the same thing.  Always the same thing.”  These last almost inaudible words sank away into the silent pool of Hortense’s meditation.

“Have another cigarette,” said Kitty.  “You’ve let yours fall into the water.”

I heard them moving a little, and then they must have resumed their seats.

“You’ll drop out of it,” Kitty now pursued.

“Into what shall I drop?”

“Just being asked to the big things everybody goes to and nobody counts.  For even with the way Charley has arranged about the phosphates, it will not be enough to keep you in our swim—­just by itself.  He’ll weigh more than his money, because he’ll stay different—­too different.”

“He was not so different last summer.”

“Because he was not there long enough, my dear.  He learned bridge quickly, and of course he had seen champagne before, and nobody had time to notice him.  But he’ll be married now and they will notice him, and they won’t want him.  To think of your dropping out!” Kitty became very earnest.  “To think of not seeing you among us!  You’ll be in none of the small things; you’ll never be asked to stay at the smart houses—­why, not even your name will be in the paper!  Not a foreigner you entertain, not a dinner you give, not a thing you wear, will ever be described next morning.  And Charley’s so set on you, and you’re so just exactly made for each other, and it would all be so splendid, and cosey, and jolly!  And to throw all this away for that crude boy!” Kitty’s disdain was high at the thought of John.

Hortense took a little time over it “Once,” she then stated, “he told me he could drown in my hair as joyfully as the Duke of Clarence did in his butt of Malmsey wine!”

Kitty gave a little scream.  “Did you let him?”