“Even that will be taken up in its due logical sequence,” and the Reverend Smith Boyd prided himself on having already displayed the patience which he had come expressly to exercise.
Gail was immediately aware that he was exercising patience. He had reproved her, nevertheless, and quite coldly, for having violated the tacit agreement to take up the different phases of their weighty topic only “in their due logic sequence.” The rector, in this emergency, would have found no answer which would stand the test, but Gail had the immense advantage of femininity.
“It altogether depends at which end we start our sequence,” she sweetly reminded him. “My own impression is that we should begin at Vedder Court and work back to the creation. Vedder Court needs immediate attention.”
That was quite sufficient. When Allison called, twenty minutes later, they were at it hammer and tongs. There was a bright red spot in each of Gail’s cheeks, and the Reverend Smith Boyd’s cold eyes were distinctly green! Allison had been duly announced, but the combatants merely glanced at him, and finished the few remarks upon which they were, at the moment, engaged. He had been studying the tableau with the interest of a connoisseur, and he had devoted his more earnest attention to the Reverend Smith Boyd.
“So glad to see you,” said Gail conventionally, rising and offering him her hand. If there was that strange thrill in his clasp, she was not aware of it.
“I only ran in to see if you’d like to take a private car trip in the new subway before it is opened,” offered Allison, turning to shake hands with the Reverend Smith Boyd. “Will you join us, Doctor?”
For some reason a new sort of jangle had come into the room, and it affected the three of them. Allison was the only one who did not notice that he had taken Gail’s acceptance for granted.
“You might tell us when,” she observed, transferring the flame of her eyes from the rector to Allison. “I may have conflicting engagements.”
“No, you won’t,” Allison cheerfully informed her; “because it will be at any hour you set.”
“Oh,” was the weak response, and, recognising that she was fairly beaten, her white teeth flashed at him in a smile of humour. “Suppose we say ten o’clock to-morrow morning.”