“Oh no. It holds novelty anyway. You are never dull, but likewise you are no longer novel.”
They made for the high roads again, and spun along mostly in silence until the car once more came to a standstill at Lorraine’s door.
“Come in,” she said, “I’ve lots of time.”
“No,” with a little smile. “I’ve had my crumbs for the day. I’m going to have a good solid crust now to keep the balance. Do you know Lottie Bird?… Fourteen stone, if she’s an ounce, and a tongue like a sixty-horse-power motor. There are times when she’s so damned practical and overpowering she does me good. This is one of them. Good-bye. Don’t kill the giant with a glance; and don’t be silly enough to get hurt yourself.”
“All right. I’ll go in full armour,” and she nodded gaily enough as he moved off down the street.
CHAPTER XI
What Lorraine exactly meant by full armour she did not quite know, but it might very well have been taken to mean the shining armour of her own best loveliness. Certainly after no small consideration she chose what she believed to be her most becoming gown, and she was unusually critical about the dressing of her hair.
All the same, at 7.45 she was ready, and her cavalier had not yet arrived. She waited five minutes until he came, and then it was necessary to wait another five minutes that he might not know she had been more up to time than he. Then she entered the drawing-room in a little bit of a hurry, and cut short his simple, direct apologies by regretting her own tardiness, and saying she had been out motoring until late.
But she had time to note quickly that he also had dressed himself with special care, plastering down resolutely the unruly determination of his fair hair to curl. That was good. Any suggestion of a curl must have produced an effect of effeminacy, whereas that neat, plastered wave showed the shapeliness of his head, and gave him a touch of manly decision. Her electric brougham was at the door, but she kept it waiting a few minutes, that they might be later than the majority of diners, and pass up a well-filled room.
In the end their arrival was equal to her best expectations. She led the way slowly, with a queenly grace that was one of her best attributes; but as she nodded casually to an acquaintance here and there, she had plenty of time to observe the curious eyes from all around, looking with undisguised admiration, not so much at her faultless appearance, which was more or less known, but at her striking cavalier.