“Goodness knows! Father swallows everything.... Oh, dear! I really liked him—when he was miles away!”
Claudine now knocked at the door; and entered.
“Children,” she said. “Where have you been? I waited and waited for you—”
“We just came up here; we didn’t go to the drugstore after all. We thought we’d like a nice quiet little talk,” said Edna.
“It’s very close and hot up here,” said their mother. “However I suppose you’re not going downstairs again this evening—”
“Not unless Andrée wants to play another duet,” said Edna.
Andrée scowled at her.
“Your playing was beautiful, my dear,” said her mother. “Mr. MacGregor must be a very competent teacher.”
She kissed them both and went back into her own room, unaccountably relieved. She undressed and put on a thin silk dressing-gown and sat down near the window in the dark.
She deliberately tried to banish all thought of Gilbert. He would inevitably go to the large hotel down the road and have a number of whiskies and soda, and come back, either contrite or quarrelsome. One was as bad as another.... She sighed, bitterly. Better think of Andrée.