“You might ask him out to dinner to-night. I am having a few friends in for the evening.”
“You bet I will.”
Donald accepted Janet’s invitation with alacrity. Living within the four bare walls of a room and eating in restaurants had long since palled on his taste.
“Formal or informal?” he asked.
Douglas made a deprecatory gesture. “Formal, very formal. You don’t know Janet or you wouldn’t ask that question. My sister is a stickler for ceremony. How are you off for ‘soup and fish’?”
“I have the necessaries,” smiled Donald.
Donald spent more than the usual time in dressing. He stood before the small mirror and surveyed himself with a critical eye. “Pretty soft for you,” he apostrophized himself, “eating in ten-cent restaurants one day and dining in a millionaire’s home the next, and on the invitation of the most beautiful girl you have ever met.”
Douglas called for him with his car and whisked him to the palatial Rennie residence on Shaughnessy Heights. The imposing evidence of wealth was written in bold headlines on the whole street of beautiful homes.
Mrs. Rennie met them at the door and greeted Donald warmly. He could not repress a start as he noted her likeness to Janet, and when she spoke her voice held the same deep tone as her daughter’s. She led him to a large room flanked by two enormous bays that looked out on the Avenue. There was a spaciousness in all the rooms, a rare combination of beauty and good taste in the furnishings, that were luxurious without being ornate. Robert Rennie came forward and gave him a cheery welcome. Donald heard Janet’s voice behind him and turned to gaze on a vision of loveliness.
Janet had dressed for the occasion with unusual care. A dark red evening gown of a filmy material showed to advantage the delicate contour of her form and the graceful curve of her snow-white shoulders and neck. Her lovely hair was wound in shining coils and held with a comb that sparkled with small but brilliant diamonds. Her long dark lashes drooped, and she flushed slightly as she met Donald’s look of undisguised admiration.