Her hair had been arranged by a hair dresser, so that the soft waves over her forehead gave her a less severe expression, a slight color due to the excitement of her dinner party and her gratification over Mrs. Burton’s and the Camp Fire girls’ appearance, made her cheeks glow with something approaching the past radiance of youth.
Moreover, Miss Patricia was finding herself agreeably entertained by the guest who sat upon her right.
Mr. David Hale was probably not aware of what extent the dinner, with its suggestion of a peace table, had been hurriedly arranged in order to impress him. But if Miss Patricia had desired to make an impression, she had accomplished the result she wished to achieve.
As he talked to Miss Patricia, whom he discovered to be an extremely well informed woman as well as a decidedly original character, he was at the same time able to observe with a good deal of pleasure the group of charming girls by whom he was surrounded.
Any other hostess than Miss Patricia Lord, under similar circumstances, would have seen that Bettina Graham was placed beside her new acquaintance, who had been so kind after their unexpected meeting. But any one, who has learned to know Miss Patricia, by this time must have appreciated that her tactics were not always those of other people.
Bettina did not sit next Mr. Hale but almost directly across from him. Yvonne Fleury was placed on his other side. As Yvonne was French and the young man an American, they might be supposed to be interested in making each other’s acquaintance. So far as Bettina was concerned Miss Patricia had a definite purpose in her dinner arrangement. Mr. Hale was not to imagine that his passing acquaintance with Bettina, or his opportunity to render her a personal service, was necessarily to lead to further intimacy.
In Miss Patricia’s eyes Bettina had appeared, before a stranger, in an extremely unfortunate and undignified position. She must therefore be restored to proper dignity both by her own behavior and the attitude of her friends.
In the adventure between Sally Ashton and Lieutenant Fleury,[2] Miss Patricia had been actuated by this same motive, although she had expressed it so differently.
Tonight, in spite of her critical attitude, Miss Patricia was fairly well satisfied with Bettina Graham’s demeanor. Whatever Bettina’s impression of herself as lacking in social grace, she had been witness for many years to the charm of her mother’s manner, to her gift for knowing and saying just what the occasion demanded and must have learned of her.
In her greeting of Mr. Hale on his arrival earlier in the evening, Bettina had displayed just the proper degree of appreciation of his kindness, neither too much or too little. Immediately after she had effaced herself in order that he might devote his attention to her Camp Fire guardian and Miss Patricia.