“Good gracious, can’t the man stand alone by this time? He’s going overseas—has he got to have a nurse along? What’s having one little glass at a dinner with a girl like me compared with the things men order when they’re alone together? He’d better stay home if he isn’t——”
“Yes, but—just now, when he’s on trial, and he might so easily be held back! And besides, Fanny—you’re not—you ought not——”
“Oh, don’t preach! Haven’t I been a very model of propriety? And am I not going to keep right on being one, as long as there’s the least chance of—getting what I want? You needn’t grudge me one little jolly evening with a boy like Cary Ray, who comes nearer understanding the sort of fire and flame I’m made of——”
Nan Lockhart lay back upon her pillow. “Fanny,” she said despairingly, “the best thing you can do is to go to bed. When you begin to talk about your temperament you make me want to give you a cold plunge and a rub-down, and tie an ice-cap on your head. You’ve probably been saved from helping Cary Ray make a fool of himself at a time when he can’t afford to be a fool, and you’d better be thankful. How you can imagine that a thing like that would help you to find a place in Robert Black’s good graces——”
“Oh, it’s gentle Jane who’s ace-high with him just now, of course!” Fanny pulled the hairpins out of her hair with vicious twitches, letting the whole gleaming fair mass fall upon the white silk of the luxurious little garment in which she had enveloped herself before coming to Nan’s room. “He’s the sort who was born to rescue the fallen, and serve the anxious and troubled. He acted like a regular knight to Jane—not that he said much to her, but one could see. He was very nice to me—too nice. I’d much prefer the Jane-brand of his chivalry—sort of an I’ll-stand-in-front-of-you-and-take-the-blows effect. And when he went off with Cary and Doctor Burns, and I was left with those two women creatures——”
“My dear, I can’t let you keep speaking of Mrs. Burns that way. She’s one of the finest, sweetest——”
“She’s a peach!” said Fanny, unexpectedly. “I admit I’ve nothing against Mrs. Burns except that she took me to a dismal violin recital when I’d awfully wanted to see a perfectly ripping play Cary had tickets for.”
“Not——”
Fanny nodded. “Of course—why not, Miss Prudy? I didn’t mind that so much, though. The thing I minded was Jane Ray’s sleekness. She makes me think of one of those silky black cats with yellow eyes——”
But here Nan Lockhart sat up in bed, fire in her own steel-gray eyes. “Fanny Fitch, that’s enough!” she said, with low distinctness. “Jane Ray is my friend.”