Rolling in his own limousine! And missing the rhythm of big Ben's measured trot----!
"_I think--she was the--most beautiful_----"
As they motored to Winifred's, Eve spoke of his quiet mood. "Why don't you talk, Dicky?"
"It has been a busy day--I'll wake up presently and realize that I am here."
It was before he went down-stairs at the Dutton-Ames that he had a moment alone with Jimmie Ford.
Jimmie was not in the best of moods. Winifred had asked him a week ago to join a choice quartette which included Pip and Eve. Of course Meade made a troublesome fourth, but Jimmie's conceit saved him from realizing the real fact of the importance of the plain and heavy Pip to that group. And now, things had been shifted, so that Eve had stayed to talk to a country doctor, and he had been left to the callow company of an indefinite debutante whom Winifred had invited to fill the vacancy.
"When did you come down, Brooks?" he asked coldly.
"I saw Cynthia Warfield's picture on the wall--used to know the family down in Carroll--our old estates joined--Anne Warfield and I were brought up together."
They had reached the head of the stairway. Richard stopped and stood looking down. "Anne Warfield?"
"Yes. Surprised to find her teaching. I fancy they've been pretty hard up--grandfather drank, and all that, you know."
"I didn't know." It was now Richard's turn to speak coldly.
"Oh, yes, ran through with all their money. Years ago. Anne's a little queen. Engaged to her once myself, you know. Boy and girl affair, broken off----"
Below them in the hall, Richard could see the women with whom he was to sup. Shining, shimmering figures in silk and satin and tulle. For these, softness and ease of living. And that other one! Oh, the cheap little gown, the braided hair! Before he had known her she had been Jimmie's and now she was Geoffrey's. And he had fatuously thought himself the first.
He threw himself uproariously into the fun which followed. After all, it was good to be with them again, good to hear the familiar talk of people and of things, good to eat and drink and be merry in the fashion of the town, good to have this taste of the old tumultuous life.
He and Eve went home together. Philip's honest face clouded as he saw them off. "Don't run away with her, Brooks," he said, as he leaned in to have a last look at her. "Good-night, little lady."