And then, the matter of presents being over, they both felt a little freer. Hilda looked at the kitchen clock. It was five minutes after four.
"If you don't think Roger would really mind, Anne, we'll begin. I want a nice, long talky dinner, and a little evening after." Hilda gave her petticoat a last flirt, twirled about on her toes, and began dishing up the turkey. "Belle came early and made the salad, something extra fancy she's learned. The plates are ready in the pantry, Anne. If you'll just carry them in, then I'll introduce you."
Anne carried the salad into the dining-room, catching a side view of Dr. Stetson through the drawn portière. He looked as she imagined he would look from his voice; slim, and exceedingly well groomed. He was leaning back now in the rocker, his thin, strong white hands clasped behind his sleek, dark head. He was listening to an animated anecdote of Belle's and smiling. Anne thought he was the most collected, self-possessed being she had ever seen. He might have removed every nerve in his body by one of his own skillful operations.
"If Belle marries him, she'll toe the mark." Anne smiled and went back to the kitchen. When the turkey and cranberries and sprouts were dished and in the hotplate, Hilda took Anne into the parlor. Dr. Stetson rose instantly, gave her a penetrating glance as if she were a patient, dismissed her as much less interesting than Belle, and they all followed Hilda into the dining-room beyond.
"Why, where's Roger?" Belle demanded.
"He'll be along shortly. Hilary Wainwright's giving a party, a Christmas tree to some poor children, and Roger had to help get the thing going."
"If there were a few more Wainwrights in this country there wouldn't be any labor trouble," James explained, squinting and pursing up his lips as if he had private information of this certainty. Belle laughed.
"Well, I'm glad I'm not a philanthropic millionaire if he can't even take Christmas off. It must be worse than nursing or surgery, don't you think so, Doctor?"
"It must be if it keeps any one from a salad like this," Dr. Stetson smiled at Hilda, who was saved in the nick of time by Belle's look, from disclaiming the honor.
Roger's absence was not further commented upon and the talk became general. Dr. Stetson had traveled extensively before the war in Europe and he described people and places well, always picking out with the unerring accuracy of his famous thousand-dollar cuts, the weak or ridiculous spots in people and conditions. James Mitchell scarcely stopped smiling. Belle's ringing laugh interrupted every few moments. Anne, too, was interested. She felt the charm of the man's culture and experience. It would be nice to travel and meet interesting people, go to wonderful concerts and luxuriate for a little while in pleasant, easy places. To meet people concerned in creating beauty or enjoying it; not only those always striving to divide it up. Perhaps, some day, when Europe had settled again to a semblance of what it had been before, she and Roger and Rogie would go. Anne began in imagination to travel.