Diana sent her eyes over him and Mr. Hepburn, seeing Dacier.  ’That rosy mediaevalism seems the utmost we can expect.’  An instant she saddened, foreboding her words to be ominous, because of suddenly thirsting for a modern cry from him, the silent.  She quitted her woman’s fit of earnestness, and took to the humour that pleased him.  ’Aslauga’s knight, at his blind man’s buff of devotion, catches the hem of the tapestry and is found by his lady kissing it in a trance of homage five hours long!  Sir Hilary of Agincourt, returned from the wars to his castle at midnight, hears that the chitellaine is away dancing, and remains with all his men mounted in the courtyard till the grey morn brings her back!  Adorable!  We had a flag flying in those days.  Since men began to fret the riddle, they have hauled it down half-mast.  Soon we shall behold a bare pole and hats on around it.  That is their solution.’

A smile circled at the hearing of Lady Singleby say:  ’Well, I am all for our own times, however literal the men.’

‘We are two different species!’ thumped Lady Pennon, swimming on the theme.  ’I am sure, I read what they write of women!  And their heroines!’

Lady Esquart acquiesced:  ‘We are utter fools or horrid knaves.’

’Nature’s original hieroglyphs—­which have that appearance to the peruser,’ Westlake assented.

’And when they would decipher us, and they hit on one of our “arts,” the literary pirouette they perform is memorable.’  Diana looked invitingly at Dacier.  ’But I for one discern a possible relationship and a likeness.’

‘I think it exists—­behind a curtain,’ Dacier replied.

’Before the era of the Nursery.  Liberty to grow; independence is the key of the secret.’

‘And what comes after the independence?’ he inquired.

Whitmonby, musing that some distraction of an earnest incentive spoilt Mrs. Warwick’s wit, informed him:  ’The two different species then break their shallow armistice and join the shock of battle for possession of the earth, and we are outnumbered and exterminated, to a certainty.  So I am against independence.’

‘Socially a Mussulman, subject to explosions!’ Diana said.  ’So the eternal duel between us is maintained, and men will protest that they are for civilization.  Dear me, I should like to write a sketch of the women of the future—­don’t be afraid!—­the far future.  What a different earth you will see!’

And very different creatures! the gentlemen unanimously surmised.  Westlake described the fairer portion, no longer the weaker; frightful hosts.

Diana promised him a sweeter picture, if ever she brought her hand to paint it.