"Why didn't you cut in?" she asked in a candid, transparent voice.
He could not believe his ears. Drawing her with him, he backed into the white and gold oval library. She was smiling uncertainly. After a tremulous pause she asked: "Is this how it happens?"
Lennox couldn't speak. There was a long silence; a long communication that seemed to dread words.
"I'm frightened," she said.
Lennox shook his head.
"At first I thought I'd help. You know, the dance? Then I thought you were being hasty. And then it happened, didn't it?"
Lennox nodded.
"If you don't let go of my hand, I'll faint ... I think. What do we do now?"
Before he could answer, Cooper appeared in the door with a magnificent white-haired woman wearing a bronze dress and a jade necklace. Both smiled.
"Ah! Just in time," Cooper said, "Our hostess, Madam McVeagh. Jordan Lennox."