'All right?' he inquired.
Stemp looked him over carefully from head to foot in the glare of the electric light. [{182}]
'Yes, sir.'
Van Torp left the room at once. He found Mrs. Rushmore slowly moving about the supper-table, more imposing than ever in a perfectly new black tea-gown and an extremely smart widow's cap. Mr. Van Torp thought she was a very fine old lady indeed. Margaret had not entered yet; a waiter with smooth yellow hair stood by a portable sideboard on which there were covered dishes. There were poppies and corn-flowers in a plain white jar on the table. Mrs. Rushmore smiled at the financier; it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that she beamed upon him. They had not met alone since his first visit on the previous afternoon.
'Miss Donne is a little late,' she said, as if the fact were very pleasing. 'You brought her back, of course.'
'Why, certainly,' said Mr. Van Torp with an amiable smile.
'You can hardly have come straight from the theatre,' continued the lady, 'for I heard the other people in the hotel coming in fully twenty minutes before you did.'
'We walked home very slowly,' said Mr. Van Torp, still smiling amiably.
'Ah, I see! You went for a little walk to get some air!' She seemed delighted.
'We walked home very slowly in order to breathe the air,' said Mr. Van Torp—'to breathe the air, as you say. I have to thank you very much for giving me your seat, Mrs. Rushmore.'