Gerald was beginning to think that Landini kept Mrs. Hawthorne rather longer than was fair when the door opened to let them in, with Estelle and Leslie and Percy and Doctor Baldwin, all laughing together.
“Well, have you intrigued any one?” Gerald asked Aurora.
“Me? Oh, I wouldn’t be up to any such pranks,” she said. “Has any one been intriguing you?”
“I haven’t been down, Mrs. Hawthorne. I have stayed quietly here, hoping to go down with you, if you will be so good, merely intriguing myself meanwhile–” he dropped his voice so as to be heard of her only,–“with wondering what kept you so awfully long.”
“Interesting company, funny sights.”
216“Are you too tired to come down again and give me a dance?”
“Bless your soul, I’m not tired, but I’m going home.”
“Going home?”
“Man, do you know what time it is?”
“I know, of course. But you can’t mean you are going home. You only came at midnight, and it’s less than half-past two. Hosts of people stay until the big chandelier goes out.”