No more did Joe welcome the situation. “My dear,” he said, “the Beekmans have seen us. They are signalling.”
How strangely that “My dear!” rang through the corridors of Wilfred’s consciousness! He thought of the seven years of intimacy between these two. Face to face, stripped of all disguise—but had they ever revealed their souls to each other? One would never know!
Waiters had pushed up two chairs, and Elaine seated herself. She said to Joe: “Go over and explain to them that we have unexpectedly met some old friends. We’ll be with them in five minutes.”
Joe marched off, rubbing his upper lip.
The eyes of everybody in the vicinity were addressed to their table, which was rather cruel on Frances Mary and Wilfred in their undistinguished attire. Elaine, of course, was oblivious. She addressed herself to Frances Mary.
“My husband and yours have been acquainted for many years.”
“Yes, Wilfred has spoken of it,” said Frances Mary.
In this opening, Elaine betrayed herself to be not so candid as she appeared. She had apprehended Frances Mary’s antagonism, and the latter had instantly perceived it. There was nothing gauche about Frances Mary, only the glassiness of her eyes warned Wilfred of jarring voices within. He was painfully aware of the worn lining of his wife’s coat over the back of the chair. Joe would mark that when he came back. Why had he ever brought her here? They did not belong to it. Wilfred’s sympathies were all on the side of Fanny—well, his main sympathies, the outside part of him; the sprite was for Elaine, because Fanny had intrenched herself, whereas Elaine was skirmishing pluckily in the open.
Elaine was momentarily at a loss. It must have occurred to her to wonder why she had insisted on sitting down. Like most impulses, it would not bear a critical examination. Wilfred’s heart went out to her; it had been a generous impulse. It was not often that she troubled to come out of her shell like this. It was Fanny who played the grudging part. Well, there Elaine was. She tried again.
“You have several children, haven’t you? Somebody told me.”