“Let me see,” said Juliet demurely, pretending to consider. “What is it that you do like to do?”
“You know well enough. And little enough of it I can get now with a husband who never cares to stir.” There was a suspicion of bitterness in Judith’s voice. But Juliet, ignoring it, went blithely on:
“I’ve a strong conviction that one can’t be happy without being busy. Now that I can’t keep up my athletic sports I should become a pale hypochondriac without these housewifely affairs to employ me. I don’t like to embroider. I can’t paint china. I’m not a musician. I somehow don’t care to begin to devote myself to clubs in town. I love my books and the great outdoors—and plenty of action.”
“You’re a strange girl,” was Judith’s verdict, getting languidly out of the hammock, an hour later, after an animated discussion with her friend on various matters touching on the lives of both. “Either you’re a remarkable actress or you’re as contented as you seem to be. I wish I had your enthusiasm. Everything bores me—Look at this frock, after lying in a hammock! Isn’t white linen the prettiest thing when you put it on and the most used up when you take it off, of any fabric known to the shops?”
“It is, indeed. But if anybody can afford to wear it it’s you, who never sit recklessly about on banks and fences, but keep cool and correct and stately and——”
“—discontented. I admit I’ve talked like a fractious child all day. But I’ve had a good time and want to come oftener than I have. May I?”
“Of course you may. Must you go? I’ll keep you to dinner and send for Wayne.”
“You’re an angel, but I’ve an engagement for five o’clock, and there’s the Reardons’ this evening. You won’t forget that? You and Anthony will be sure to come?”
“I’ll not promise absolutely, but I’ll see. Mrs. Reardon was so kind as to leave it open. It’s an informal affair, I believe?”
“Informal, but very gorgeous, just the same. She wouldn’t give anybody but you such an elastic invitation as that, and you should appreciate her eagerness to get you,” declared Judith, who cared very much from whom her invitations came and could never understand her friend’s careless attitude toward the most impressive of them.