Downstairs Miss Jaffray entered her machine and was driven northward.
It is not for a moment to be supposed during the weeks which followed Mr. Egerton’s party that Miss Jaffray had retired from the social scene. And if her rebuff at Phil Gallatin’s hands had dampened the ardor of her enjoyment, no sign of it appeared. She was more joyously satirical, more unmitigably bored, more obtrusively indifferent than ever. But those who knew Nina best discovered a more daring unconvention in her opinions and a caustic manner of speech which spared no one, not even herself. She was, if anything, a concentrated essence of Nina Jaffray.
A woman’s potentiality for mischief proceeds in inverse ratio to her capacity for benevolence, and Nina’s altruism was subjective. She gave her charity unaffectedly to all four-legged things except the fox, which had been contributed to the economic scheme by a beneficent Providence for the especial uses of cross-country riders. She spent much care and sympathy upon her horses, and exacted its equivalent in muscular energy. Two-legged things enjoyed her liking in the exact proportion that they contributed to her amusement or in the measure that they did not interfere with her plans.
But the word benevolent applied to Nina with about as much fitness as it would to the Tropic of Capricorn.
The motto of New York is “The Devil Take the Hindmost,” and it feelingly voiced Nina’s sentiments in the world and in the hunting field. She had always made it a practice to ride well up with the leaders, and to keep clear of the underbrush, and had never had much sympathy for the laggards. There was a Spartan quality in her point of view with regard to others, which remained to be put to the test with regard to herself. The occasion for such a test, it seemed, had arrived. For the first time in her life she was apparently denied the thing she most wanted. She had even been willing to acknowledge to herself that she wouldn’t have wanted Phil Gallatin if she hadn’t discovered that he wanted some one else.
But her liking for him had been transmuted into a warmer regard with a rapidity which really puzzled her and forced her to the conclusion that she had cared for him always. And Phil Gallatin’s indifference had stimulated her interest in him to a degree which made it necessary for her to win him away from Jane Loring at all hazards.
She was not in the least unhappy about the matter. Here was a real difficulty to be overcome, the first in personal importance that she had ever faced, and she met it with a smile, aware that all of the arts which a woman may use (and some which she may not) must be brought into play to accomplish her ends.
As a matter of fact, Nina’s mechanism was working at the highest degree of efficiency and she was taking a real delight in life, such as she had never before experienced. Since the “Pot and Kettle” affair she had thought much and deeply, had noted Coleman Van Duyn’s attentions to Jane Loring, and her acceptance of them, had heard with an uncommon interest of their reported engagement and had kept herself informed as to the goings and comings of Phil Gallatin. And she read Jane Loring as one may read an open book. Their personal relations were the perfection of amiability. They had met informally on several occasions when Nina had noted with well-concealed amusement the slightly exaggerated warmth of Jane’s greeting, and had taken care to return this display of friendship in kind. Everything added to the conviction that Jane’s love of Phil was only exceeded by her hatred of Nina Jaffray.
And yet until this morning Nina had had moments of uncertainty, for the incident Jane had witnessed was too trivial to stand the test of sober second thought, and Jane was just silly enough to forgive and forget it.
Nina’s visit to Phil Gallatin’s office had agreeably surprised her, for Phil had made it perfectly clear that his estrangement from Jane still existed. But to make the matter doubly sure, Nina had decided to play a card she had been holding in reserve. In other words, more smoke was needed and Nina was prepared to provide the fuel.