Martin spoke with hesitation, as though fearing a reproach, and Grizel narrowed her eyes, and smiled; a slow, enigmatical smile, but spoke not one rude word. She had quite decided that Martin should not be in the mood!
“On Wednesday and Thursday I’m to be At Home!” was her next irrelevant remark. “We put fifteenth and sixteenth on our cards, and now that we’ve stayed away a week longer than we intended, the fell date is upon us before we can breathe. Do you suppose many people will come?”
Martin’s shrug was eloquent.
“Every adult feminine creature who can crawl on two legs from a radius of five miles around, will crawl to the door. Hundreds of ’em! And with luck three or four males.”
“I could find it in my heart to wish it were t’other way round! However! never say die... There’ll be no time to finish the drawing-room! I’ll have to receive the surging mobs in the sitting-room upstairs. Let’s pray the chairs will go round!”
“Couldn’t the drawing-room be got ready with a rush?”
“Why in the world should we bother to rush?”
“They’ll be disappointed if you don’t. The drawing-room is part of the show. The whole neighbourhood is speculating about it now, and wondering if it’s blue or pink. A house with a closed drawing-room is like a play without the star. Do you realise, darling, that they’ll expect to be shown all over the house?”
“Let them expect, if it pleases them to do it, but they won’t! Let me catch anyone trying it on!” cried Grizel sharply, and the gay eyes sent out a flash of fire. “My own little home!—it shall not be turned into a peep-show for a flock of curious women to criticise and quiz. I’ll give them tea, and I’ll give them cake, I’ll talk pretty, and put on a tea-gown which will scare ’em into fits, but show them over the house—I will not! Let’s pretend the sitting-room is the drawing-room, and all will be peace and joy.”
“It would leak out afterwards, and they’d feel defrauded. Half of them will never enter the house again, darling; you won’t care to pursue the acquaintance, and it will end with an exchange of calls; but you’re rather an exceptional kind of bride, remember, and these good ladies don’t get too much amusement out of life. It would be kind of you to give them an afternoon out! Not, of course, if it bothers you, but surely the maids—”