“Whatever is done about the probating of John’s will, will be decided by our lawyers,” she said. “If the will is contested, it will be a friendly suit in law. Personally I believe that Julian will reconsider and withdraw his hot-tempered threat. You know, Claire, that he is a creature of impulse.”
Whatever reply Mrs. Hull would have made was checked by the entrance of Anne. She was a favorite with Mrs. Hull, and the latter kissed her with tender warmth.
“You don’t look a bit well, Anne,” she announced, with customary candor, holding the girl at arm’s length. “Why don’t you send her away for a change, Belle? This atmosphere of gloom,” looking about the somber room, “is enough to depress the stoutest heart.”
Anne smiled as she pressed her hand, then turned to her mother.
“Sam Hollister has just telephoned Herman that neither he nor Doctor Curtis will be here for dinner,” she said.
“Indeed!” Mrs. Meredith raised her eyebrows in displeasure. “And where have they gone?”
“I don’t know, mother.”
Mrs. Meredith selected her favorite chair. “Switch on the lights, Anne,” she directed. “We might as well make ourselves comfortable until dinner time.”
Two hours later Anne slipped away from the dining room, and telephoned to the garage. A few words to Damason sufficed and she went to the hall closet and took down her sport coat. The dinner had been shorter than usual and, for which Anne was devoutly thankful, had passed off more cheerfully than other meals since the death of her uncle. Gerald Armstrong had appeared just before dinner was announced, looking extremely well groomed in his evening clothes. Mrs. Hull attributed his conversational powers to her presence, but Herman might have contributed another reason for his sudden loquaciousness had he told of an empty cocktail shaker reposing in Armstrong’s bedroom.
All day long Anne’s head had ached with a dull throbbing pain which made her long for forgetfulness—oblivion, even. A desire to be by herself, to get out in the air possessed her, and snatching the first opportunity she had stolen away, hoping that her absence would not be noticed until she had gotten into her roadster and driven off.