It was a queer sort of feeling--a kind of misgiving, in one form or another, as to her own identity--as if all the events since her marriage were nothing but a dream of Rose Stanton's, from which, with vague painful stirrings, she was just beginning to wake. Or, again, as if for all these months, she had been playing a part in a preposterously long play, on which the curtain was, presently, going to be rung down. She wished Rodney would come--hoped he wouldn't be late, and finally sat down before the telephone with a half-formed idea of calling him up and reminding him that they were dining with the Randolphs.
Just as she laid her hand upon the receiver, the telephone bell rang. It was Rodney calling her.
"Oh, that you, Rose?" he said. "I shan't be out till late to-night. I've got to work."
She wanted to know what he meant by late.
"I've no idea," he said. "Ten--twelve--two. I've got to get hold of something, but I've no idea how long it will take."
"But, Roddy, dearest," she protested. "You have to come home. You've got the Randolphs' dinner."
"Oh, the devil!" he said. "I forgot all about it. But it doesn't make a bit of difference, anyway. I wouldn't leave the office before I finished this job, for anybody short of the Angel Gabriel."
"But what shall we do?" she asked despairingly.
"I don't know," said Rodney. "Call them up and tell them. Randolph will understand."
"But,"--it was absurd that her eyes should be filling up and her throat getting lumpy over a thing like this,--"but what shall I do? Shall I tell Eleanor _we_ can't come, or shall I offer to come without you?"
"Lord!" he said, "I don't care. Do whichever you like. I've got enough to think about without deciding that. Now do hang up and run along."
"But, Rodney, what's happened? Has something gone wrong?"
"Heavens, no!" he said. "What is there to go wrong? I've got a big day in court to-morrow and I've struck a snag, and I've got to wriggle out of it somehow, before I quit. It's nothing for you to worry about. Go to your dinner and have a good time. Good-by."
The click in the receiver told her he had hung up. The difficulty about the Randolphs was managed easily enough. Eleanor was perfectly gracious about it and insisted that Rose should come by herself.