As Danvers pulled her chair a little further from the low rail, Winifred noticed his face change.
"What is it?" she asked, in quick response.
Philip smiled a little sadly. "'My heart is on the ground,'" he answered, using an expressive Indian phrase. "I cannot be light and witty. I am cursed with seriousness."
"Your friends like you just as you are." But in this frank avowal the senator found no consolation.
Danvers' enjoyment of the familiar opera was augmented by the appreciation shown on Winifred's earnest, mobile face. The company proved to be exceptionally good, the voices above the average, the acting intelligent and con amore. The passionate intensity of the Italians soon enthused Miss Blair into forgetfulness of those around her. While her brother and O'Dwyer sat stoically, the doctor contentedly, and Mrs. Latimer indifferent in her secret musing, Arthur and Philip followed, with her, the fortunes of Leonora. Not until the curtain fell on act three did she readily join in the chatter of her friends, and then only when Judge Latimer said to his wife: "You should have heard Phil sing 'Di quella pira' when we were at Fort Macleod. He reached that high note quite as easily as this Italian."
"Don't you believe him, Mrs. Latimer," besought Danvers. "Make allowance for his well-known partiality."
"Certainly," responded Eva, trying to make her tone indifferent. She never was quite sure of her voice when speaking directly to this man who ignored the past.
"Do you sing?" Winifred turned with a quick motion which was characteristic. "Do you, Senator Danvers?"
"But you did?"