“I stole away just for a minute,” she said. “I got so tired of smiling.”
“So did I. Come over here and let me kiss the tired place.” She took a seat beside her husband and turned her cheek toward him, with the amused patience of the married woman who has ceased to be demonstrative. “I know the feeling,” said her husband, with his fingers at the corners of his mouth. “Muscles in here.”
Helen sighed. “Horrid, isn’t it?”
“Well, it’s all part of the game, I suppose. Whew!”
“What was that for?” she asked, quickly.
Briggs patted her hand. “Nothing, dear, nothing. They say it’s a great success.”
“I was frightened about the supper; but everything has gone off well.”
Briggs looked into his wife’s face. “Helen, sometimes I wonder what would become of me if it weren’t for you.”
“What a foolish thing to say, Douglas!”
“Someone told me to-night that I’d been successful here in Washington because I had such a popular wife. I guess there was a good deal of truth in that.”