“Upon my word,” she thought, “one would suppose I was dirty!”
She settled her combs in her sleek hair, and presently took the course Julia had followed. She did not join Florence and Longacre, because the more she saw of Florence the more she was afraid of her. Besides, she felt a childish excitement in her cheap little rôle of intrigante. And there was another person upon whom she could practise it without fear: Mrs. Budd, more unsuspicious than her daughter, and as credulous.
Poor woman! Her outspoken, objective nature had been sorely tried by these days with so little doing on the surface of things, and so much on the under side. Her mind was a blur of conjecture over what Thair was going to do. Longacre was a disturbing element she had not named. It was Cissy who clapped on the appellation. It was Cissy who helped her to a conclusion.
It all came out so casually, on the side, with the things they discussed over their lace-making in the wide-windowed upper living-room.
Then it was Longacre (according to Cissy) who had kept Thair—extremely sensitive—at a distance: Longacre, charming, a dear—but, well—fond of being about married women. Cissy had had her little experience with him, and of course (magnanimously) there must be others.
“But if you knew this about him—and let me take such a man into my house—when I have a young girl!”
But, oh, Cissy was horrified. No! not such an attitude to Julia! Never! The point was, Did Mrs. Budd want Julia to marry such a man?
“Marry Julia!” This was appalling.
Cissy felt much satisfaction. Her intention was far from cruel. She merely wanted something very much, and was trying to get it. Gauging their feelings by her own, it never occurred to her that she had more than vexed and annoyed her hostess and her hostess’s daughter. And this she preferred to being vexed and annoyed herself.
But the circumstances, upon which she had laid such bold hands, burst from her grasp and rushed past her. Yet Cissy was not aware of their progress. It was Florence Essington who first felt their precipitation. She foreboded a crisis.