"Do, sweetheart?" he echoed at a loss.
"With all those people coming to-night," she added, mildly impatient.
"Why, what CAN we do, dear?"
"You don't mean," Rachael said incredulously, "that we shall have to GO ON with it?"
"Think a minute, dearest. Why shouldn't we?"
"But"--her color, better since his entrance, was waning again--"with Clarence Breckenridge dying while we dance!" she shuddered.
"Could anything be more preposterous than your letting anything that concerns Clarence Breckenridge affect what you do now?" he asked with kindly patience.
"No, it's not that!" she answered feverishly. "But--but for any old friend one would--would make a difference, and surely--surely he was more than that!"
"He WAS more than that, of course, but he has been less than nothing to you for a long time!"
"Yes, legally--technically, of course," Rachael agreed nervously. She sat silent for a moment, frowning over some sombre thought. "But, Warren, they'll all know of it, they'll all be THINKING of it," she said presently. "I--really I don't think I can go through it!"