"I do, indeed!"
"I wish I were so sure of it," Stephanie mused.
Gladys laughed softly.
"You are sure of it, dear. Montague Pendleton himself couldn't drag you out of the straight and narrow—and that even though you were to love him madly." She got up and going over perched herself on the other's chair-arm. "Forget the past—your friends have forgotten it. Be thankful that it is the past—and that once more the sun is shining. You have those who are devoted to you, and you have—Montague."
Stephanie drew the other down and kissed her.
"Maybe I have him!" she smiled. "You said that I have him for a reasonable time—that man is a fickle beast at best."
"The reasonable time varies with the man!" Gladys smiled back. "With Montague Pendleton it is likely to be forever. He loved you, I think, before your marriage—he loves you still. Isn't that an assurance of the future?—Now let us get back to the Porshinger matter. I didn't telephone—I wanted to discuss the invitation with you. I know that Mrs. Woodside is absent and he's simply down with Woodside, so we could ask him well enough. And, on the whole, I think it would not be a bad scheme. You're afraid of him for Montague, as well as for yourself. He is a climber, with enormous wealth and power—and he's coming over the wall, so why not assist him? He will be grateful and it may cause him to relent. He will know that if he injures Montague he will injure his chances for Society. Moreover, the sooner we start to draw his fangs the better it will be for you two."
"I don't think Montague will approve," said Stephanie. "I told him Marcia Emerson's story, and he laughed at my fears—though admitting there had been a difficulty and that I had to do with it. Then I also told him of the walk with Porshinger and of Overton's bull; and while he didn't say much, I could see that he didn't like it."
"All of which goes to prove his affection for you—if you doubt it," Gladys remarked.
Stephanie smiled an answer but did not voice it—and Gladys put her arm around her friend's neck and was silent also for a moment.