To see her with lowered lashes, telling it, was the funniest thing in
the world, and Porter shouted. Then her lashes were, for a moment,
raised, and the old Delilah peeped out, shrewd, impish.
"He wants me to change my name. No, don't misunderstand me--not my
last one. But the first. He says that Delilah smacks of the
adventuress. I don't think he is quite sure of the Bible story, but he
gets his impressions from grand opera--and he knows that the Delilah of
the Samson story wasn't nice--not in a lady-like sense. My middle name
is Anne. He likes that better."
"Lady Anne? You'll look the part in that garden party frock he is
designing for you."
And now she had reached the question toward which she had been working.
"Shall you go?"
He shook his head. "I doubt it. It isn't a function from which one
will be missed. And the Ballards won't be there. Mary is going over
to New York with Constance for a few days before the sailing. I'm to
join them on the final day."
"And you won't go to the garden party without Mary?"
He found himself moved, suddenly, to speak out to her.
"She wouldn't go if she were here--not with me."
"Contrary Mary?" she drawled the words, giving them piquant suggestion.
"It isn't contrariness. Her independence is characteristic. She won't
let me do things because she wants to do them by herself. But some day
she'll let me do them."
He said it grimly, and Delilah flashed a glance at him, then said
carefully, "It would be a pity if she should fancy--Roger Poole."
"She won't."
"You can't tell--pity leads to the softer feeling, you know."
"Why should she pity him?"
"There's his past."
"His past? Roger Poole's? What do you know of it, Delilah?"
As he leaned forward to ask the eager question, he knew that by all the
rules of the game he should not be discussing Mary with any one. But
he told himself hotly that it was for Mary's good. If things had been
hidden, they should be revealed--the sooner the better.
Delilah gave him the details dramatically.
"Then his wife is dead?"
"Yes. But before that the scandal lost him his church. Nobody seems
to know much of it all, I fancy. Mary only gave me the outline."
"And she knows?"
"Yes. Roger told her."
"The chances are that there's--another side."