“Do you intend to take part in the fray?”
“Not unless I can be one of the reserve corps that won’t need to be brought up till it’s all over. I’ve no idea of getting my hair down.”
“Ah,” he sighed, “you think it’s going to be rude:”
“That is one of the chances. But you seem to be suffering about it, Mr. Verrian!” she said, and, of course, she laughed.
“Who? I?” he returned, in the temptation to deny it. But he resisted. “I always suffer when there’s anything silly happening, as if I were doing it myself. Don’t you?”
“No, thank you, I believe not. But perhaps you are doing this? One can’t suppose Mrs. Westangle imagined it.”
“No, I can’t plead guilty. But why isn’t it predicable of Mrs. Westangle?”
“You mustn’t ask too much of me, Mr. Verrian. Somehow, I won’t say how, it’s been imagined for her. She’s heard of its being done somewhere. It can’t be supposed she’s read of it, anywhere.”
Miss Macroyd came out with her laugh. “I should like to know what she makes of you, Mr. Verrian, when she is alone with herself. She must have looked you up and authenticated you in her own way, but it would be as far from your way as--well, say--the Milky Way.”
“You don’t think she asked me because she met me at your house?”
“No, that wouldn’t be enough, from her point of view. She means to go much further than we’ve ever got.”
“Then a year from now she wouldn’t ask me?”
“It depends upon who asks you in the mean time.”
“You might get to be a fad, and then she would feel that she would have to have you.”
“It isn’t exactly my idea of the reward I’ve been working for. What shall I do to be a fad?”
“Well, rather degrading stunts, if you mean in the smart set. Jump about on all fours and pick up a woman’s umbrella with your teeth, and bark. Anything else would be easier for you among chic people, where your brilliancy would count.”
“Oh yes, if I were a girl! That will be so much more interesting.”
“A girl,” Miss Macroyd continued, “might do it by posing effectively for amateur photography. Or doing something original in dramatics or pantomimics or recitation--but very original, because chic people are critical. Or if she had a gift for getting up things that would show other girls off; or suggesting amusements; but that would be rather in the line of swell people, who are not good at getting up things and are glad of help.”