"Yes, that's true. He's the military type; and going back to his old job during the war has brought it out in him, more than ever. Still, I know well enough how to deal with men of that sort—had lots of practice at it lately. And Edmund's my brother. I'm fond of him. In some ways I look up to him; he's straight and honest as the day. And he's affectionate, too, under his stiffness. You can't drive him, but you can lead him, if you're careful in the way you do it. Hold out a hand to him, Crowborough. He'll respond all right, and you'll soon git rid of that soreness."
They strolled back to the upper garden together, and Lord Crowborough lost no time in goading his wife into asking Mrs. Eldridge to dine. It was necessary to detach her from the side of Lady Eldridge and draw her a little aside, and it was plain to everybody that something in the way of pressure was being exercised. Lady Crowborough did not want to invite the Eldridges. She was more incensed against Colonel Eldridge than her husband, and had no memory of intimacies of early childhood to soften her towards him. However, she obeyed her husband, as a good wife should. She had not yet had any conversation with Mrs. Eldridge, and might even have been supposed to have avoided her. But she went straight up to her and said: "We haven't really seen anything of each other for months. I wish you and your husband and Pamela would come over and dine to-morrow evening. Lord and Lady Branchley aren't going until Tuesday, and I've asked the Hobkirks and one or two other people."
Mrs. Eldridge looked up at her from the cushioned chair in which she was sitting, so very much at her ease, showing the neatest feet and ankles under her short-skirted summer frock. A wonderful woman for her age, it was the custom to say of her. Her age might have been forty-five, but she looked at least ten years younger than that, and on some occasions younger still. There was not a thread of grey in her rippling, lustrous brown hair; her cheeks were softly rounded, her skin was fresh. She wore a large flowery hat, which accentuated the graceful slimness of her form. She looked up at Lady Crowborough, looming profusely above her, out of untroubled blue eyes. "Thanks so much," she said. "I'm not sure what Edmund is doing to-morrow. Pamela and I could come. I could let you know if he can't."
Lady Crowborough grunted. She was a tall, upright woman with a decorative façade, and seemed to have been formed by nature to play the part of a great lady. But there was something lacking in her equipment. She was easily flustered, and when confronted with any difficulty seemed to lose even in physical bulk. "Crowborough particularly wanted me to ask Colonel Eldridge," she said in a tone that did not carry out the promise of the preliminary grunt.
"So I saw," said Mrs. Eldridge, with unbaffled sweetness. "It was very good of him. I don't see in the least why he shouldn't come, but it's never safe to make promises for him. If you don't want me and Pamela without him—"
"Oh, of course I do, if he can't come. Yes, of course I shall be delighted. It's really ages since we saw anything of one another."
She suddenly became friendly and confidential, dropping into a seat next to Mrs. Eldridge's, and demanding her ear for a low-spoken account of the trouble she had been going through with a laundry maid who had unwisely loved a Canadian soldier. Mrs. Eldridge was all sympathy, but managed to impart some lightness into an affair that Lady Crowborough had never thought to regard as anything but a gloomy tragedy. When she took leave of her Lady Crowborough's manner was intimately affectionate. She kissed her and called her "my dear," and said what a comfort it was to pour out one's troubles to an old friend.
Afterwards, in conversation with her husband, she was a little doubtful whether she had not gone rather too far. "Of course I have known her for a good many years," she said. "And I've always liked her too. But the fact is, I like her better when I'm with her than when I'm away from her; I don't know why. She's got a sort of way with her."
"She's a very charming woman," said Lord Crowborough. "I've nothing against her at all. I don't know why you shouldn't like her when you're away from her. Anyhow, I'm glad you made a bit of a fuss with her. And evidently she responded, from what you say. No doubt she wants this trouble ended. So do we. Poor old Edmund! I've forgiven him for what he said, though 'pon my word it was outrageous."
"Well, I said I never would forget it," said Lady Crowborough. "And really, John, when I come to think of it, I'm not at all sure you're right in making it so plain that we are anxious to see Colonel Eldridge back on the old terms with us. Perhaps he'll even refuse my invitation, and we shall have given him a handle. If he does come, of course I shall be polite to him, but I've no intention of treating him in the same way as I have Cynthia."