everance strode impatiently up and down the room overlooking the ocean.
“‘Will be down in a minute.’ I suppose that means the usual thirty for reflection and contemplation of bric-à-brac. What a pretty room! No bric-à-brac in it, by the way. I wonder if this is the room my lady Jessica is said to have furnished to suit herself? It looks like a woodland glade. She must look stunning against those moss-green curtains. I wonder how madam liked my letter? It was rather brutal, but to manage a witch you have got to be Jove astride a high horse. Here she comes. I know that perfume. She uses it to sweeten the venom of those snakes of hers.”
Mrs. Pendleton entered and gave him her hand with frank welcome. Her “snakes” seemed vibrant with life and defiance, and her individuality pierced through her white conventional gown like a solitary star in a hueless sky.
“How do you do?” she asked, shaking his hand warmly; then she sat down at once as a matter of course.
He understood the manœuvre.
“Let us play chess, by all means,” he said and took a chair opposite. “Your seclusion has done you good,” he added, smiling as the crest of a wave appeared in her eyes. “You have lost your fagged look and are more like a girl than a widow. Dissipation does not agree with you. Two more winters! You would try to make up for it by your wit, and then your nose would get sharp, and you would have a line down the middle of your forehead and another on each side of your mouth.”
“You are as rude as ever,” said Jessica, coldly; but the wave in her eyes threatened to become tidal. “If you marry a blonde and incarcerate her, however, you may find the effect more bleaching than Society.”
“Was that a reflection upon my own society? I do not incarcerate; I only warn.”
“So do I,” said Mrs. Pendleton, significantly; “I have occasionally got the best of a bad bargain.”
“And as you will find me the worst in the world you are already on the defensive,” said Severance, with a laugh. “Come, I have not seen you for six months, and I am hard hit. I wrote you that I marked off each day with a pencil—a red one at that; I bought it for the occasion. Don’t take a base advantage of the admission, but give me one kind syllable. I ask for it as humbly as a dog does for a bone.”