“You and I will go round by ourselves to-morrow morning, Mrs. Moncreiff,” he said.
Just then the steward appeared with the whisky and soda, but Mr. Gilman dismissed him with a sharp gesture, and he vanished back into the unexplored parts of the vessel. The implication was that the society of Audrey made whisky and soda a superfluity for Mr. Gilman. Although she was so young, he treated her with exactly the same deference as he lavished on Madame Piriac, indeed with perhaps a little more. If Madame Piriac was for him the incarnation of sweetness and balm and majesty, so also was Audrey, and Audrey had the advantage of novelty. She was growing, morally, every minute. The confession of Musa had filled her with a good notion of herself. The impulsive flattery of Madame Piriac in the joint cabin, and now the sincere, grave homage of Mr. Gilman, caused her to brim over with consciousness that she was at last somebody.
An automobile hooted on the quay, and at the disturbing sound Madame Piriac ceased to play and swung round on the stool.
“That—that must be our other lady guest,” said Mr. Gilman, who had developed nervousness; his cheeks flushed darkly.
“Ah?” cautiously smiled Madame Piriac, who was plainly taken aback.
“Yes,” said Mr. Gilman. “Miss Thompkins. Before I knew for certain that Mrs. Moncreiff could come with you, Hortense, I asked Miss Thompkins if she would care to come. I only got her answer this morning—it was delayed. I meant to tell you.... You are a friend of Miss Thompkins, aren’t you?” He turned to Audrey.
Audrey replied gaily that she knew Tommy very well.
“I’d better go up,” said Mr. Gilman, and he departed, and his back, though a nervous back, seemed to be defying Madame Piriac and Audrey to question in the slightest degree his absolute right to choose his own guests on his own yacht.
“Strange man!” muttered Madame Piriac. It was a confidence to Audrey, who eagerly accepted it as such. “Imagine him inviting Mees Thompkins without a word to us, without a word! But, you know, my dear uncle was always bizarre, mysterious. Yet—is he mysterious, or is he ingenuous?”
“But how did he come to know Miss Thompkins?” Audrey demanded.