“I was getting fat and lazy. Now I am normal. You—you are just the same—except—Do you know that this is the first time I have seen you without a bonnet?”
“You mean a hat!” laughed Lady Alicia. “I’m sure no one has ever seen me in a bonnet for years. Yes, at Aix one lives in a hat from the time one gets up till one goes to bed. I hope now you’ll often see me without a hat.”
“As often as you’ll let me,” said Vellacot, with his little awkward bow.
She launched Vellacot into the circle, effected introductions. Sir Samuel and Lady Dykes he knew. The ex-member offered his congratulations, discussed the election, drew a critical sketch of personalities in the constituency. Could give Vellacot any number of tips in that way,—indicate all the constituent corns that lay in the way of incautious t
