done.'

Lady Bridget was so absorbed in her subject matter that she did not
notice the entrance of the men; but Mrs Gildea saw that Colin McKeith
was making straight towards them. He halted behind Bridget's chair.
Biddy went on in reply to a question from her friend.

'You see, they argue this way, "We don't know," they say, "the HOW of
the simplest things in life, we don't know the HOW of our actual
existence--how we move or think--not even the HOW of the most
ordinary fact in science. We only know that there must be an
Intelligence who does know and who has forces at command and the power
to set them in motion." '

'And how do we know that?' asked Colin McKeith.

Bridget turned with a start and looked at him solemnly for a second or
two.

'You paralyse me: you are too big. I can't speak to you when you are
standing up. Please sit down.'

He went to fetch a chair. At the moment, Lady Tallant came up.

'Biddy, will you sing. Do for Heaven's sake make a sensation. Help me
out! You know how!'

Lady Bridget had a funny inscrutable little smile and a gleam in her
eyes which crinkled up when she was going to say or do something rather
naughty.