He was a short man, no longer very young. Nature had intended him to be fat, but he had not let her have her way.
The two sat down in the little red-lined room behind the box, with its one electric light and its mirror. Nellie had established herself on the tiny sofa.
“Well, James,” she said.
“I wanted to tell you that I had been appointed to this commission to inquire into the sources of our Russian immigration. I start in September.”
“I congratulate you. You will be an ambassador within a few years, I feel sure.”
Her praise did not seem to elate him. He went on in exactly the same tone:
“I shall be gone three months or more.”
“I shall miss you.” Her manner was too polite to be warm, and he answered, without temper,
“You don’t care whether I go or not.”
She looked at him. “Yes, I do, James,” she said mildly. “You know I depend on you, but it would be very selfish if I thought of myself instead of——”