"I'm afraid I can't return the compliment," she answered. "You look as if you hadn't been to bed for a week. Now come along in to dinner and tell me what you have been doing with yourself."
She took his arm, and they entered the dining-room together. "For the last time, perhaps," he murmured to himself regretfully. Myra was a good sort, he mused. Despite her waves of anger she had always been thoughtful of his welfare. Yet she was part of Hora's life. He forgot her momentarily in his surroundings. Everything was so homelike. Meriel Challys was an occupant of dreamland, surely, and he had never really experienced all the mental disturbances which had troubled him. He awoke to reality with the popping of a cork.
"No wine," he said.
Myra pouted rosy lips at him. "I insist," she replied imperiously. "In default of a fatted calf, which one cannot possibly get served in a flat, I insist upon champagne."
She lifted her glass to her lips. "May all our hopes come true!" she said, and drank.
There was something infectious in her gaiety. Guy raised his glass in response. "Amen!" he said fervently. The wine brought colour to his cheeks and brightness to his eyes. He suddenly remembered that he was hungry, and that he had eaten nothing since breakfast, and that then a bare morsel of toast had been almost more than he could swallow. Myra watched him with a smile ever on her lips, and chattered vivaciously of Scarborough. She did not ask him concerning his doings. She desired to lull his memories to rest, and Guy was willing to let them slumber. He did not perceive that danger threatened his new-made resolutions.
Under the spell of Myra's vivacity he became his natural self. He was even surprised when he found himself laughing naturally. The dinner was not too long, and every dish, Guy noted, was one for which at one time or another he had expressed a preference. He was thirsty, and his glass was always full.
The dinner came to an end.
"We will have coffee in the drawing-room," she said. "Then I can smoke, too."
He rose and accompanied her. Her hope was growing strong now. She was satisfied with her work so far. She had never before held Guy's interest for so long a time.