“The best of friends,” he said calmly. “What do you think of this question, Mamie? Miss Fearing says she thinks that a good book might be written about friendship. I answered that I thought it would be far from popular with the public. What do you say?”
Constance looked curiously at Mamie, as though she were interested in her reply. It seemed as though she must agree with one or the other. But Mamie was not easily caught.
“Oh, I am sure you could, George!” she exclaimed. “You are so clever—you could do anything. For instance, why do you not describe your friendship? You two, you know you would be so nice in a book. And besides, everybody would read it and it could not be a failure.” Mamie smiled again, as she looked at her two hearers.
“I should think Mr. Wood might do something in a novel with you as well as with me,” said Constance.
George was not sure whether Mamie turned a shade whiter or not. She was naturally pale, but it seemed to him that her grey eyes grew suddenly dark and angry.
“You might put us both into the same book, George,” she suggested.
“Both as friends?” asked Constance, raising her delicate eyebrows a little, while her nostrils expanded. She was thoroughly angry by this time.
“Why, of course!” Mamie exclaimed with an air of perfect innocence. “What could you suppose I meant? I do not suppose he would be rude enough to fall in love with either of us in a book. Would you, George?”
“In books,” said George quietly, “all sorts of strange things happen.”
Thereupon he turned and addressed Grace, who was on the other side of him, and kept up an animated conversation with her throughout the remainder of the visit. It seemed to him to be the only way of breaking up an extremely unpleasant situation. Constance was grateful to him for what he did, for she felt that if he had chosen to forget his courtesy even for an instant he would have found it easy to say many things which would have wounded her cruelly and which would not have failed to please his cousin. George, on his part, had acquired a clearer view of the real state of things.