“Just come and choose my hat, Ally,” she called through the dressing-room door, and Alaric’s broad shoulders and smooth head followed her summons dutifully. There was no outward difference between husband and wife; the same easy relations existed between them that made Mrs. Lewin’s nickname of “Chum” typical, the same surface confidence that caused Ally to staunchly assert to Mrs. Churton that his married life was entirely satisfactory, and he himself a beast. The qualification marked the advance of their intimacy. But in her heart Mrs. Lewin knew that she was altering; some new strong development was taking place in the very fibres of her nature, and the transformation was a painful process to herself at any rate. It was even a different face that she saw in the glass as Ally looked over her shoulder and condemned her choice.
“Not that chiffon thing, Chum, surely. Aren’t you going to wear a habit?”
“It’s too hot. Besides, I wish to leave a good impression on Mr. Halton’s mind, and this is his last festivity. He leaves next week, and takes the memory of my muslin with him. Isn’t it pretty?”
“Damfino! as the Pink’un used to say—or was it the Referee? It’s new too, isn’t it?”
“My last. Why don’t you like that hat? Will my Panama do?”
“That’s better. Who will ride with you, Chum? Halton?”
“Major Churton, I think. With a possible reversion to Brissy.”
“Why not Gregory’s Powder? Think of my interests!”
“He is not coming with us, but will turn up at our destination. He has business that will keep him down at the office until later,” said Mrs. Lewin without hesitation over the Administrator’s plans, for she knew them, and knew also deeper reasons for them, which she did not tell Ally—reasons that fed the activity of her mind, and to which she listened with the faithfulness of a tried friend. For when Gregory laid the heavy weight of his confidence gradually upon her, he bound her with a chain whose iron links she hardly felt more than silken as yet.
Ally accepted her information as more infallible than an official telegram. “The O.C.T. has his innings first then,” he added. “Hurry, Chum! I told them to saddle up.”