She put back her abundant hair: "Why didn’t you call up last week when you were home to find out?"
"I was home only overnight. And I came late and left before you were awake. You know I have been at the new refinery for a week. We began melting yesterday."
She took hold of the lei that he had worn over from the dance and in a leisurely way made a pretence of braiding the stem of a loose rose back into it. "This is the prettiest I’ve seen," said Lottie. "Who gave it to you?"
"Grace. What is the matter with it?" he asked looking down at her white fingers.
"You are losing your decoration," she murmured with leisurely good-nature. "Nobody to do anything for you."
Kimberly looked at the parting lei with some annoyance, but if he entertained doubts as to its needing attention he expressed none. "These things are a nuisance anyway," he declared at length, lifting the lei impatiently over his head and depositing it without more ado on a console. "We will leave it there."
"Where else have you been all this time?" demanded Lottie with an indolent interest.
"All over the country--even across the Rockies."
"Across the Rockies! And a whole big car to yourself! You must love solitude. And now you are buying a lot of refineries."
"Not precisely; this MacBirney purchase is not by my advice or with my approval."
"He is in there now, Imogene is talking with him."
"The trip was extremely tedious," said Kimberly, casting his eyes slowly around for means of escape.
"How could it be anything else with no friends along?"
"With McCrea and two secretaries and a stenographer, I hadn’t time to take any friends."
"I should say in the West it is valuable for getting home with."
"To build more; borrow more; control more; sell more; spend more. I’m speaking for all the rest of you, not for myself. I’m just the centrifugal to throw the money out."
"Never by any chance to live more, I suppose?"
"You mean to eat and drink more? How could we?"
"I _don’t_ mean to eat and drink more. I mean just what I say, to live more!"
They were at the threshold of the music room. He laughed good-naturedly, but Lottie declined to be appeased.
"Lord, but I’m sick of it all!" she exclaimed petulantly.
Kimberly used care not to offend, yet he always interposed a screen between himself and her, and however delicate the barrier, Lottie Nelson had never been able to penetrate it.