"Then you have seen Miss Oldham to‑day?" Hayden attempted to infuse into his tones, merely polite, superficial interest; what he really put into them was an eager longing to hear of his butterfly lady.
"I have just come from her," said Bea Habersham, "I do hope she will be more like herself this evening!"
"Like herself!" Hayden wheeled sharply. "Why, what do you mean? Is she not well? Is she ill?" He could not conceal his anxiety.
"Oh, dear me, no." Mrs. Habersham reassured him with a smile. "Not ill at all, not in the least. It was only—"
"Only what?" insisted Hayden.
"Only that she seemed a bit—well, overwrought, not quite like herself."
"How overwrought? Do tell me just how she appeared to you. I feel as if you were keeping something back," urged Robert.
"Nonsense. You are building up a great mountain out of a very insignificant mole‑hill," reproved Bea with a smile. "It is quite absurd. I see, however," with a resigned smile, "that you will never be satisfied unless I go into the most elaborate details and tell you just how she looked and just what she said."
"Oh, please," so simply and earnestly, that her heart was touched and she gave him one of her rarest and most sympathetic smiles.
"Very well, to begin then," Bea spoke with assumed patience. "Of course, I feel exactly as if I were in the witness box, but what will one not do for one's friends. Then to be quite circumstantial: This afternoon, I stopped at the Oldhams. Marcia was fortunately at home, and I noticed at once that she was looking rather down in the mouth, and was very distrait. She seemed in rather a peculiar state, to alternate from a mood of excitement to one of depression, and more than once while I was talking to her, I saw the tears well up to her eyes. I, at first, thought that her mother had been bothering her, for that Venus was in one of her most exacting and fractious moods, but I soon came to the conclusion that that was not the root of the trouble. Fortunately, Marcia and I were alone for a short time before I left and I endeavored to find out what was weighing on her mind. Not from curiosity, believe me, but because I felt convinced that something of more than usual importance had disturbed her poise.