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CHAPTER IX

AN ADVENTURE IN THE NIGHT

Now, I admit I'm a bit of a coward sometimes—all women are—but I flatter myself I don't often show it.

'Never make an exhibition of your feelings in public. It's so ill-bred,' I remember was one of Aunt Agatha's copy-book maxims which she used to instil into us when we were young, while mother was away on a platform somewhere nobly sacrificing the education of us three children to the education of the country generally. 'If you don't like a person it's probably as much your fault as the other body's, so there's no need for you to show it. Just smile round on everybody. Life's too short to go and make things unpleasant. In the same way if you're in love or frightened or fingering your last cent in the bottom corner of your pocket, there's no good crying out and making a fuss about it. If you've got to die, you will die, and you may as well do it with a smile and make it as pleasant for other people as you can.'

It's one of the most wonderful things in life