"Of course I've no call," admitted Miss Jennings, "to be giving you advice. But I wasn't born with my mouth sewn up, and you never were one to put yourself forward, were you?"
Philip admitted that possibly this was true, and the conversation passed to the inevitable topic of old times and old friends.
"How is Brand, by the way?" asked Philip. "He was an admirer of yours, I believe?"
"Brand?" said Miss Jennings carelessly. "Oh--the mechanic? I believe he is getting on very well. First foreman, then manager of the garage; and now that you are gone he and Mr. Rendle pretty well own the earth between them, so I gather. Brand is quite the gentleman now. I hear he has given up making a spectacle of himself in the Park of a Sunday. Mr. Rendle is the same as ever. He misses you at the flat, though."
"You seem to know all about our domestic arrangements," said Philip, much amused.
"Nobody that wasn't born deaf-and-dumb," said Miss Jennings with decision, "could see Mr. Rendle six hours a day for six days a week without knowing every blessed thing about him, and a jolly sight more, from his own lips. His young ladies, and everything! He brought one to Oxford Street, the other day. He told me afterwards--"
"What was she like?" asked Philip instantly.
"I didn't notice her particularly. She was in the show-room looking at motors most of the time, and only stepped into the office for a minute. She was quite simply dressed, it being the morning, but her clothes were good all through. I picked up two or three ideas for myself straight off. Shoes, for one thing. Hers were the neatest I ever saw--brown _suède_ with silver buckles. No cheap American ready-mades, or anything of that kind. As for her coat and skirt, you could see they'd been cut by a tailor, and her hat was one of these simple little things that fit close to the head and look as if they could be put together for half-nothing; but I know better. It came out of--"
"What was she like?" repeated a patient voice.
"I'm trying to tell you," replied Miss Jennings, a little offended.
"Yes, but her appearance? Not her clothes."
"I didn't really have time to notice her appearance," she said at length; "but she was what I should call a middling blonde. She was wearing one of those new blouses, with a V-shaped--"