Again
down the thronged room she swept, with that chin-lifted,
drooping-eyed, faintly offended half consciousness of some staring
rabble at hand that concerned her not at all. Her alert feminine foes,
I am certain, read no slightest trace of amusement in her unwavering
lowered glance. So easily she could have been crude here!
Belknap-Jackson, enduring his ignominious solitude to the limit of his
powers, had joined his wife at the lower end of the room. They had
taken the unfortunate development with what grace they could. His
lordship had dropped in upon them quite informally--charming man that
he was. Of course he would quickly break up the disgraceful affair.
Beginning at once. They would doubtless entertain for him in a quiet
way----
At the deserted table his lordship now relieved a certain sickening
apprehension that had beset me.
"What, what! Quite right to call me out here. Shan't forget it.
Dangerous creature, that. Badly needed, I was. Can't think why you
waited so long! Anything might have happened to old George. Break it
up proper, though. Never do at all. Impossible person for him. Quite!"
I saw they had indeed taken no pains to hide the woman's identity from
him nor their knowledge of his reason for coming out to the States,
though with wretchedly low taste they had done this chaffingly.
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