"Impersonal! Uplifting!" Mrs. Haviland repeated indignantly.
"There wasn't very much uplift about them the other night. Gardner
and I stopped in to see if we couldn't take you to the Hoyts', but
you'd gone. Carol had on that flame-colored dress of hers, her
hair was fluffed all over her ears in that silly way the girls do
now; Joe couldn't take his eyes off her. The only light they had
in the drawing-room was the yellow lamp and the fire; it was the
coziest thing I ever saw!"
"Vivvy Sartoris was here!" Rachael said quickly.
"Don't you believe it, my dear!" Mrs. Haviland returned
triumphantly. "Carol was very demure, 'Tante' this and 'Tante'
that, but I knew right away that something was amiss! 'Oh,' I said
right out flatly, 'are you alone here, Carol?' and she answered
very prettily: 'Vivian was to be here, but she hasn't come yet!'
This was after half-past seven."
"I understood Vivian WAS here," said Rachael, flushing darkly.
"Let me see--the next morning--where was I? Oh, yes, it was your
luncheon, and Billy had gone out for some tennis when I came
downstairs. I supposed of course--but I didn't ask. I DID ask
Helda what time she had let the gentleman out and she said before
eleven--not much after half-past ten, in fact."
"You see, we mustn't go on suppositions and halftruths any more,"
said Mrs. Haviland in delicate reproach. "When we have that
wonderful and delicate thing, a girl's soul, to deal with, we must
be SURE."
"I suppose I'd better tell Clarence that--about Wednesday night,"
Rachael said, downing with some effort an impulse to ask Florence
not to be so smug.
"Well, I think you had," the other agreed, with visible relief.
"As for me," Mrs. Breckenridge said, nettled by her sister-in-
law's attitude, and mischievously interested in the effect of her
thunderbolt, "I'm just desperately tired of it. I can't see that
I'm doing Clarence, or Billy, or myself, any good! I'd like to
resign, and let somebody else try for a while!"
Steel leaped into Mrs. Haviland's light-blue eyes. She felt the
shock in every fibre of body and soul, but she flung herself
gallantly into the charge. Her large form straightened, her
expression achieved a certain remoteness.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked sharply.
"The usual thing, I suppose," Rachael answered indifferently.
The older woman, watching her closely, essayed a brief, dry laugh.
"Don't talk absurdities," she said boldly. But Rachael saw the
uneasiness under the assured manner, and smiled to herself.
"It's not absurd at all," she protested, still with her smiling,
half-negligent air; "I've put it off years longer than most women
would; now I'm getting rather tired."