“Say, for God's sake, let me out of this!”
“Why?”
“She's a frost. If I have to sit beside her an hour I'll catch cold and die. I swear it; save me! Save my life!”
“Sh! It's all right. She's fine and generous when you know her.”
They had reached the door and Mary pushed him in. There was no help for it. He'd have to make the most of it.
The dinner was a dismal failure.
Jane Anderson was polite and genial, but there was a straight look of wonder in her clear gray eyes that froze the blood in Jim's veins.
Mary tried desperately for the first half-hour to put him at his ease. It was useless. The attack of Ella had upset his nerves, and the unexpressed hostility of Jane had completely crushed his spirits. He tried to talk once, stammered and lapsed into a sullen silence from which nothing could stir him.
The two girls at last began to discuss their own affairs and the dinner ended in a sickening failure that depressed and angered Mary.
The agony over at last, she rose and turned to Jim: