“Yes, that’s Claud, I expect, but don’t mind me, please,” Mr. Price replied. “His mother’s my aunt. But I don’t see him or my partner——” He looked round and they waited a moment. “He’s great on the pwur, too,” he said. “P’haps they’re hatching something t’gether. I don’t alt’gether b’lieve in it m’self, d’you? Of course it’s awf’lly fine and all that and I ’dmire it immensely, but I think it ’ncourages them t’ have grievances—makes them dwell on their p’sition and so on, which after all can’t be helped. Don’t you rather agree?”
“I don’t know,” said Evangeline. She was not attending much for she had caught sight of her husband talking seriously to Mrs. Vachell and wondered what it was about. She recalled her mind to what Mr. Price was saying. “My sister thinks of nothing else,” she said, “but I am no good at it; I am too lazy and selfish.” Emma Gainsborough appeared just then and Mr. Price left Evangeline with an apology.
“Awf’lly hot, what?” he observed to Emma when they had been labouring round the room a few minutes. Emma was not a good dancer.
“Hot what, what hot?” she mimicked him rather crossly. “You had better stop and have an ice.”
“Forthcoming!” he observed as they stopped and he inspected her curiously. “Forthcoming indeed! You’re magnif’cent actress, you know, Miss Gainsborough. Why couldn’t you do thaat when I came to dinner with you, ’nstead of making me think I was boring you all th’ time?”
Emma ignored his last sentence. “I am very sorry,” she said, “but I do so hate parties. I get to know such a lot about the food before I see it, and I know all the time that my father will criticise every dish afterwards and mother will feel she has been a failure and say that she must get another cook; and we never do. We have had the same one for years and she gets steadily older and worse.”
“Have some coffee or ’n ice?” he suggested. “What c’n I get you? I say, th’ band seems to be packing up—that means supper. Will you excuse me as I merst look after one of the dowagers. Claud will take you in. Here, Claud,” he beckoned to his cousin, “’ll you taek Miss Gainsborough?” and he departed in haste. He found that his mother had allotted Susie to him from among “the dowagers.” The parent Gainsboroughs, Sir Richard and his wife, Cyril and the sister of the ex-Lord Mayor, filled a table with their host, and Joseph Price and Susie sat together close by.
“A most charming young man, that Joseph Price,” Susie remarked in her room that night. “I wish Evangeline had met him before dear Evan came to the house so constantly. He is so fond of sport. I hear there is some idea of his father taking Aldwych.”
“Mother Price’s diamonds would flash the glad news from tower to tower,” said Cyril with more animosity than he generally showed to anyone. “Her searchlights played over me at supper till anyone could have spotted the lobster swimming in the champagne.” Susie took refuge in silence and they went to bed. Evangeline and Evan were talking in their room at the same time. “I hope you had supper,” she said, “I feel I don’t want any more to eat for days. Whom did you get hold of?”
“Mrs. Vachell,” he answered. “She is a very charming woman; most interesting and cultivated.”