Yes, this certainly was a problem! He paced the room, another victim of the ancient predicament of divided and antagonistic duty.
CHAPTER XIX
The night of Larry's unexpected call upon her at the Grantham, Maggie had pulled herself together and aided by the imposing Miss Grierson had done her best as ingenue hostess to her pseudo-cousin, Barney, and her pseudo-uncle, Old Jimmie, and to their quarry, Dick Sherwood, whom they were so cautiously stalking. But when Dick had gone, and when Miss Grierson had withdrawn to permit her charge a little visit with her relatives, Barney had been prompt with his dissatisfaction.
“What was the matter with you to-night, Maggie?” he demanded. “You didn't play up to your usual form.”
“If you don't like the way I did it, you may get some one else,” Maggie snapped back.
“Aw, don't get sore. If I'm stage-managing this show, I guess it's my business to tell you how to act the part, and to tell you when you're endangering the success of the piece by giving a poor performance.”
“Maybe you'd better get some one else to take my part right now.”
Maggie's tone and look were implacable. Barney moved uneasily. That was the worst about Maggie: she wouldn't take advice from any one unless the advice were a coincidence with or an enlargement of her own wishes, and she was particularly temperish to-night. He hastened to appease her.
“I guess the best of us have our off days. It's all right unless”—Barney hesitated, business fear and jealousy suddenly seizing him—“unless the way you acted tonight means you don't intend to go through with it?”