"Do come and take something, Auntie," said Hilda, with the most winning, the most loving inflection.
Auntie Hamps passed out.
Hilda turned back into the room: "Do go with Auntie, Mr. Peartree. I must just--" She affected to search for something on the mantelpiece.
Mr. Peartree passed out. He was unmoved. He did not care in his heart. And as Edwin caught his indifferent eye, with that "it's-all-one-to-me" glint in it, his soul warmed again slightly to Mr. Peartree. And further, Mr. Peartree's aloof unworldliness, his personal practical unconcern with money, feasting, ambition, and all the grosser forms of self-satisfaction, made Edwin feel somewhat a sensual average man and accordingly humiliated him.
As soon as, almost before, Mr. Peartree was beyond the door, Hilda leaped at Edwin, and kissed him violently. The door was not closed. He could hear the varied hum of the party.
"I had to kiss you while it's all going on," she whispered. Ardent vitality shimmered in her eyes.
CHAPTER IV
THE WORD
I
Ada was just crossing the hall to the drawing-room, a telegram on a salver in her red hand.