CHAPTER XXV
During the days in which Lindaberry lay weak and shattered, slowly struggling back to strength and a new grip on things, some perverse spirit seemed to actuate Dodo in her attitude toward Massingale. She had remained without seeing him for forty-eight hours after Christmas, refusing to make the advance when he had stayed away. Feeling a need of retaliation, she went to luncheon twice with Harrigan Blood in the short hours in which she absented herself from the sick-room. When finally, the third day, Massingale capitulated and came to see her, she treated him with the greatest indifference, inventing new stories, incredible, but galling to his pride.
"Why didn't you come?" he said, without preliminaries.
"I have other friends and other engagements!" she said, shrugging her shoulders. "Besides, I have resolved to make it easier for you."
"For me?"
"To be just a father confessor!" she said maliciously.
He had no answer that he could phrase, so he waited, staring at his boot in perplexity, aware of the lights that were dancing in her roguish eyes.
"And dinner—Christmas dinner?"
"Engaged, too; my other friends don't leave things to chance!"