marriage has been invented, all the same," she said, "and if people marry when they are old enough...."

"To know better," I said.

"Yes, it doesn't then turn out so very badly as a rule."

I said that as things were at present Miss Brandon's life seemed to me completely wasted.

"So it is, but it might be worse. It might be a tragedy. Supposing she married someone who became fond of someone else."

"She would mind," I said.

"She would mind terribly."

I said I thought people always got what they wanted in the long run. If she wanted a marriage of a definite kind she would probably end by getting it.

Mrs. Summer agreed in the main, but she thought that although one often did get what one wanted in the long run, it often came either too late or not quite at the moment when one wanted it, or one found when one had got it that it was after all not quite what one had wanted.

"Then," I said, "you think it is no use wanting anything?"