"Don’t be such a damned fool!" he said, irritably, annoyed that she had misunderstood and cheapened his climax. "I’m going to the war."
Until that moment they had, to tell the truth, taken very little notice of this war. It had been going on for some weeks, with great head-lines in the papers, but in their isolated group it had very little significance. Their routine was in no way interrupted. Eddie worried over it, but then he worried over everything. He said it was disastrous for the market. However, they were quite sure that he would bring home money for them, if not in one way, then in another, and they weren’t really disturbed.
And now suddenly the war and Vincent came bursting in upon them with violence.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I
Vincent, of course, had to go out of the room at once after that declaration, leaving the three women astounded.
Mrs. Russell was the first to bestir herself. Perhaps because she was conscious that her emotions were so feeble, she always strained to emphasize, to exaggerate them. She at once affected a great excitement. She began rushing about, under the pretense of "getting Vincent’s room ready," and telling the servants that Mr. Vincent was home.
"And he’s going to the war, Annie!" she cried. "Isn’t that dreadful?"
Polly took no part in this movement. She went back into her own room and sat down before her dressing-table.
"I’ll do my own hair, Angelica," she said, with a new frigidity in her manner that surprised her companion.