“And he opened the door for me, and quietly stood aside to let me pass, saying quietly: ‘You will telephone when you are ready.’ He knew I would.
“And I didn’t.
“He did, though. He rang up twice, just to make sure that I understood his silence was a tense controlled silence, the silence of quiet strength ... it would have been too terrible for words if I had thought it just ordinary silence!
“But he had an awfully voluptuous house; æsthetic and luxurious and barbaric—you know the style—all mosaics and art treasures and rose-leaves floating in the blood-red finger-bowls, and silken hangings and richly crocheted antimacassars, and Moorish fretwork and poker-work ... oh, I forget what else. An invisible flutist or a lutist during meals to whip up your senses like cream ... and an inner apartment with Louis the sixteenth’s own bed standing encanopied in gold on an ivory platform, and an expensive little negligée thrown lightly for your use across the towel-horse, in case love dawns——”
Gillian sprang up abruptly from her chair, kicked away the surrounding billows of underwear, and walked firmly across to the couch; stood looking down with an unusual air of sternness:
“Deborah, I don’t know if Winifred is shocked or not. The point is, I am. Your revelations have ceased to be funny—they’re merely pitiful. I take it, by the way, that they’re mostly true?”
“I’m not a novelist,” responded Deb, shifting rather uneasily under Gillian Sherwood’s censure. “What’s up, Jill? Do you imagine I’ve sinned with all these heroes in turn?”
“No, I don’t. That’s just it. All this dabbling—it isn’t worth while. You know much too much—you know everything. You’ve got a rotten name—as bad as mine. And nothing to show for it. You’re smothered with dust from the arena—but you never ride. Deb, Deb, a little honest sin, for Heaven’s sake! I’m not keen on this demi-game!”
“A little honest sin—or a little honest chastity——” Antonia took up her stand by Gillian’s side, and put one arm about her shoulders....
“Two of you!” Deb raised herself on one elbow and prepared for battle; “les extrèmes se touchent!”