She was really distressed by the look on Jinky’s wasted young face; for of all the people there, Jinky could least afford any indiscreet pity. Jesse Page was a distant cousin of hers; he had been generous to her, and she needed it. No—she really shouldn’t look at Serena like that!
Suddenly Jinky jumped up, and, without a word, walked across the room to the window, and out on the terrace.
“Jinky!” Page called sharply. “Where are you going?”
She turned her head and glanced at him, but she did not answer. For a moment she stood there in the bright light, a curiously dramatic figure in her emerald green dress, with her gleaming black hair and her white, thin face. Then she put her jade cigarette holder between her teeth, and went off over the lawn.
Page jumped up and followed her.
“See here, Jinky!” he said furiously. “You’d better—”
“See here, Jesse!” she interrupted. “You’re making a fool of yourself.”
“All right! Perhaps I enjoy it.”
“It’ll take,” said Jinky deliberately, “just about five minutes for you to make such a mess of things that you’ll regret it all the rest of your days, Jesse!”
“Oh, no!” he said, with a grin. “It’ll take a good deal less than five minutes—when I catch sight of that lad!”