The Arthur Whites had placed their table well, and this is a great gift in Key Island, where guests are easily bored through constantly meeting each other. The host and hostess did not sit at either end of their square table, but because one side would accommodate almost as many as another they had a way of disposing themselves among their guests, and placing two instead of one at either end. It broke the usual solemn monotony of dinners, and accommodated a larger number. Thus it happened that Mrs. Lewin, who had been taken in by Captain Gilderoy, found that she was next the end of the table where her host should ordinarily have sat, but round the corner were the Administrator and Mrs. White. To sit next to Mr. Gregory was nothing, for what attention he had to give was Mrs. White’s. Chum smiled upon the garrison adjutant, and enjoyed herself with a continuation of the philosophy that had dressed her for conquest. Across the table she could see a woman, who was a stranger to her, neglecting her rightful partner, Major Churton, and talking at the Administrator through the medium of a projected water scheme in which she was not really interested, and noted her failure with as much sympathy as amusement. After all, they had all had their water-scheme trial, and failed also!
“Who is Major Churton’s partner?” she said idly to Gilderoy, under the buzz of the conversation round them.
“That is Mrs. Clayton of Mitsinjovy fame!” he answered. “They have only been out a month or so longer than you, and she was ill with fever at first, so it took some time for her questionable attractions to dawn on us.”
(“Then she does not know Mr. Gregory, and that is why she is wasting her energies on the water scheme!” thought Chum.) Aloud she said cautiously, “Do you know her?”
“Not personally, I am thankful to say, but I have a smiling acquaintance with her. I have to pass their house on my way down to town and to the garrison office every morning, and she is generally showing her ankles for my benefit on the stoep. I always smile, because as she has taken the trouble to get into her hammock, presumably on my account, it would be unkind not to do so.”
Mrs. Lewin looked at his rather rugged face, and found it curiously deceptive. For his eyes were quite friendly, and when he spoke in that pleasant tone it was difficult to realise his sneering insinuations about the lady sitting opposite, who was even now casting glances in his direction.
“What sort of acquaintance did you say you had?” she asked, laughing.
“Just a smiling one. Don’t you know that stage? I should say it was very inadvisable to go further and fare worse with the O.C.T.’s dinner partner!”
“Now I come to think of it I have had that degree of intimacy with people myself. It is rather fascinating, because though one can’t bow it is not in human nature not to recognise a familiar face in some way that evades the social law. But why should you judge Mrs. Clayton by her ankles?”
He shrugged his shoulders, and the dog-smile marred his face for a moment. “If a woman gives me such a flagrant invitation, what am I to think? They have not begun entertaining yet, but if you would rather wait and judge them by their tennis-cake and Bridge-markers pray do so. For me, I have my private opinion.”