"I'm sure my husband bears you no ill-will."
He gave a short laugh. "There's no reason why he should. There's nothing for him to be upset about. He got the fortune that should—which might have been mine—to say nothing of the girl——"
"Perhaps we had better leave the girl out of it," she put in calmly. "Even time hasn't explained that misunderstanding."
He shrugged a shoulder expressively. "As you please. I'll not parade any ghosts if I can help it. I'm too happy to see you. You're more wonderful than ever. Really I don't believe I should have known you. You're changed somehow. I wonder what it is?"
"Prosperity?" she suggested.
"I'm not sure I feel at home with you. You're so matured, so—so punctilious and modish."
"You wouldn't have me wear a short skirt and a sombrero?" she said with a slow smile.
"No, no. It is not what you wear so much as what you are. You are really the great lady. I think I knew it there in the West."
She glanced around the room.
"This?" she queried. "This was Jeff's idea." And then, as the possible disloyalty occurred to her, "You know I would much have preferred a quieter place. Fine feathers don't always make fine birds."