“Yes, I was.”
“My poor, dear man! As if half the marriages in the world were not made against the wish of one party or the other.”
His heart sank. “It’s perfectly true,” he said. “And yet one does rather hate to run away.”
“Not so much as one hates afterward to think one might have.”
He laughed and she went on: “The moment is critical. Laura Ussher and Christine have been closeted together for the better part of two hours. Something is going to happen immediately. At any moment Laura may appear and say with that wonderfully casual manner of hers, ‘May I have a word with you, Max?’ And then you’ll be lost.”
“Oh, not quite as bad as that, I hope,” said Riatt.
“Lost,” she repeated, and leaning over she laid one polished finger tip on the bell. “When the man comes, tell him to get you ready for that early train.”
There was complete silence between them until the footman appeared and Riatt had given the necessary orders.
“I wonder,” he said when they were again alone, “whether I shall be angry at you for this advice, or grateful. It’s a dangerous thing, you know, to advise a man to run away.”
“Dine with me in town on Wednesday, and you can tell me which it is.”