Saying which, the tropic creature in flamingo red sat down beside the
cooing dove, and continued: "You were right just now, when you said that the un-average man would
love Mary Ballard. Porter Bigelow loves her, and he tops all the other
men I've met. And he'd never love me. He will laugh with me and joke
with me, and if he wasn't in love with Mary, he might flirt with
me--but I'm not his kind--and he knows it."
She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "There are other fish in the
sea, of course, and Porter Bigelow is Mary's. But I give you my word,
Leila Dick, that when I catch sight of his blessed red head towering
above the others--like a lion-hearted Richard, I can't see anybody
else."
For the first time since she had known her, Leila was drawn to the
other by a feeling of sympathetic understanding.
"Are you in love with him, Lilah?" she asked; timidly.
Lilah stood up, stretching her hands above her head. "Who knows?
Being in love and loving--perhaps they are different things, duckie."
With which oracular remark she adjourned to her dressing-room, where,
in long rows, her lovely gowns were hung.
Leila, left alone, picked up a magazine on the table beside her glanced
through it and laid it down; picked a bonbon daintily out of a big box
and ate it; picked up a photograph---"Mousie," said Lilah, coming back, several minutes later, "what makes
you so still? Did you find a book?"
No, Leila had not found a book, and the photograph was back where she
had first discovered it, face downward under the box of chocolates.
And she was now standing by the window, her veil drawn tightly over her
close little hat, so that one might not read the trouble in her
telltale eyes. The daisy drooped now, as if withered by the blazing
sun.
But Delilah saw nothing of the change. She wore a saffron-hued coat,
which matched the roses in the other room, and her leopard skins, with
a small hat of the same fur.
As she surveyed herself finally in the long glass, she flung out the
somewhat caustic remark: "When I get down-stairs and look at Mary Ballard, I shall feel like a
Beardsley poster propped up beside a Helleu etching."
After lunch, Porter took Aunt Isabelle and Barry and the three girls to
Fort Myer. The General and Mr. Jeliffe met them at the drill hall, and
as they entered there came to them the fresh fragrance of the tan bark.