“I flatter myself I’m a woman of some perception,” replied Mrs. Fordyce, coloring warmly. “And truth doesn’t always lie at the bottom of a well.”
Half an hour later all details of her engagement as chaperon were satisfactorily settled, and bidding Mrs. Fordyce a warm good-night, Marjorie, lighter hearted than she had been in many a day, tripped down the hall and through the front door held open by a deferential footman. As she gained the sidewalk a limousine turned in under the porte-cochère and stopped before the door she had just left. Pausing to readjust her furs, she saw a familiar figure spring out of the motor, and a well-known voice said clearly:
“Look out for that step, Miss Fordyce,” and Chichester Barnard caught his companion’s arm in time to save her from a fall as she descended from the motor.
Marjorie watched them enter the lighted vestibule, her thoughts in riot. Chichester Barnard’s “business engagement” had not prevented his dancing attendance upon another girl—and she, Marjorie Langdon, was to be that girl’s official chaperon.
CHAPTER V
GIVE AND TAKE
“Does everything look in order in the dining-room, Duncan?” inquired Mrs. Fordyce anxiously, on her son’s entrance, laying down the magazine she was reading.
“Of course it is, dear mother,” he replied, sitting down on the lounge beside her. “You can always trust Perkins to arrange the table decorations to the Queen’s taste. Why so anxious tonight?”
“It is our first dinner-party in Washington, and I want everything to go off well for Janet’s sake. First impressions count for so much.”
Duncan laughed outright. “You, mother, worrying about a simple dinner of sixteen? Your Beacon Street ancestors will disown you.”
“My dear, Beacon Street traditions and Washington etiquette have to assimilate slowly. The official and diplomatic life here presents many pitfalls for the unwary, and Janet is young....”