“He must like me, if he is to like Ally!” said Chum to herself in vague excuse, as she went into her room to change her soiled skirt and shoes. “And that is the only way to attract him, as yet.... What a harsh, ugly face he has!—Been waiting long, Ally?”
Fresh from her encounter with the Administrator, her husband’s good looks struck her with a sudden pride in possession. She paused behind his chair, and laying her hands on his shoulders bent down to kiss him and talk tender nonsense.
“Dear thing! how nice it looks in its beautiful white clothes!” she said softly, her arm round the broad shoulders under the cool linen coat.
“Where have you been, old girl?” Ally returned, pushing his chair back from the table to return the caress heartily. “I’ve been dressed half-an-hour.”
“Up to Denver’s Works, and all round them with—who do you think? Three guesses!”
“Halton!”
“Wrong!—Silly boy! as if I didn’t love my beautiful husband better than hundreds of Mr. Haltons!”
“I know you do!—I should think it very bad taste if you didn’t,” said Ally, calmly. “Brissy, then?”
“No,—why, he is orderly officer this week!”
“Which is all that lies between me and the Divorce Court evidently! Well, I don’t think you have another mash, Chum—unless it’s Churton?”