“That’s what I wanted to know. Why go to all that trouble for the sake of looking like a darkey? But Italo says, says Italo, that it gives him more success with the ladies. His difference from other men obliges them to look at him, then his eyes do the rest.”
“I only hope your laugh is sincere, Mrs. Hawthorne, and 191that you do not allow this poisonous nonsense to affect your feelings towards–”
“Don’t be afraid. If I did, I shouldn’t be having him to dinner, should I? And he’s coming to-night.”
“Oh.”
“Yes. Quite a party. You weren’t asked, because we know you now. You would have managed by sly questions to find out who else was coming and then you wouldn’t have come.”
“Well, who is coming? There is nothing sly about that.”
“I sha’n’t tell you. This much I will tell you, though–” she added with the frankness usual to her, “I don’t look forward to it much.”
It was on the end of his tongue to ask next morning how her dinner had gone off, but on second thoughts he left it for her to speak of when she was ready.
She at first appeared much as on other days, but when she had lapsed into silence and fallen into thought her expression became a shade gloomy. He had noticed that when her eyes were rather more grey than blue it was the sign of a cloud in her sky.
“Might one ask the lady sitting for her picture to look pleasant?” he said.