"Buck up, buck up!" he charged. "You'll win out, sure!"
She brooded over his words till Atwood's return, but without seeing her way, and a restless night suggested only courses too fantastic for the light of day. She could not repeat MacGregor's warnings to Craig, nor could she voice them as her own; while to attack Julie openly seemed maddest of all. She could only drift and bide a time to assert herself with dignity.
Such a chance seemed to offer at luncheon when Mrs. Van Ostade asked Craig for suggestions regarding the decoration of the small room off the main studio.
"It has never been done up, you know," she continued. "The last tenant did not occupy it at all. We shall need it, however, and I think it should be put in order at once. I'll use my own discretion, if you don't want to be bothered."
"But that is Jean's affair," he said.
Julie's eyebrows arched.
"Really!"
"She and I settled it in the beginning that she should have that room for her work."
His sister drew her knife through an inoffensive chop with bloodthirsty vehemence.
"Indeed!" she returned.