Fortunately for Mr. Brent, he had had a cocktail, or perhaps two, in Honora’s absence.  Sufficient time had elapsed since their administration for their proper soothing and exhilarating effects.  At the sound of the laughter in the corner he turned his head, a signal for renewed merriment from that quarter.  Whereupon he turned back again and faced his hostess once more with a heroism that compelled Honora’s admiration.  As a sportsman, he had no intention of shirking the bitterness of defeat.

“Mrs. Grainger and Mrs. Shorter,” he remarked, “appear to be enjoying themselves.”

Honora felt her face grow hot as the merriment at the corner table rose to a height it had not heretofore attained.  And she did not dare to look again.

Mrs. Holt was blissfully oblivious to her surroundings.  She was, as usual, extremely composed, and improved the interval, while drinking her soup, with a more or less undisguised observation of Mr. Brent; evidently regarding him somewhat in the manner that a suspicious householder would look upon a strange gentleman whom he accidentally found in his front hall.  Explanations were necessary.  That Mr. Brent’s appearance, on the whole, was in his favour did not serve to mitigate her suspicions.  Good-looking men were apt to be unscrupulous.

“Are you interested in working girls, Mr. Brent?” she inquired presently.

Honora, in spite of her discomfort, had an insane desire to giggle.  She did not dare to raise her eyes.

“I can’t say that I’ve had much experience with them, Mrs. Holt,” he replied, with a gravity little short of sublime.

“Naturally you wouldn’t have had,” said Mrs. Holt.  “What I meant was, are you interested in the problems they have to face?”

“Extremely,” said he, so unexpectedly that Honora choked.  “I can’t say that I’ve given as many hours as I should have liked to a study of the subject, but I don’t know of any class that has a harder time.  As a rule, they’re underpaid and overworked, and when night comes they are either tired to death or bored to death, and the good-looking ones are subject to temptations which some of them find impossible to resist, in a natural desire for some excitement to vary the routine of their lives.”

“It seems to me,” said Mrs. Holt, “that you are fairly conversant with the subject.  I don’t think I ever heard the problem stated so succinctly and so well.  Perhaps,” she added, “it might interest you to attend one of our meetings next month.  Indeed, you might be willing to say a few words.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me, Mrs. Holt.  I’m a rather busy man, and nothing of a public speaker, and it is rarely I get off in the daytime.”

“How about automobiling?” asked Mrs. Holt, with a smile.

“Well,” said Trixton Brent, laughing in spite of himself, “I like the working girls, I have to have a little excitement occasionally.  And I find it easier to get off in the summer than in the winter.”