He was in the hall, the door stood open awaiting
packing-cases from a van without. In the open doorway she shone,
looking the smallest of dainty things. There was no effect of her
coming but only of her having arrived there, as a little blue
butterfly will suddenly alight on a flower.
"Well, Poff!" said Lady Marayne, ignoring abysses, "What are you up
to now, Poff? Come and embrace me. . . ."
"No, not so," she said, "stiffest of sons. . . ."
She laid hold of his ears in the old fashion and kissed one eye.
"Congratulations, dear little Poff. Oh! congratulations! In heaps.
I'm so GLAD."
Now what was that for?
And then Amanda came out upon the landing upstairs, saw the
encounter with an involuntary cry of joy, and came downstairs with
arms wide open. It was the first intimation he had of their
previous meeting. He was for some minutes a stunned, entirely
inadequate Benham. . . .
4
At first Amanda knew nobody in London, except a few people in the
Hampstead Garden suburb that she had not the slightest wish to know,
and then very quickly she seemed to know quite a lot of people.
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