CHAPTER XVII
BUILT ON THE SAND
"Your mother has had a very special guest of some sort and was closeted with her all the afternoon; I suppose she is tired out; she looked so when I met her in the hall."
This was Mrs. Erskine Burnham's explanation to her husband of his mother's absence from the dinner table. They had waited for her a few minutes, then sent a maid to her room, who had reported that Mrs. Burnham was tired and did not care for dinner.
Erskine, on hearing it, had made a movement to rise, a troubled look on his face, and then had waited for his wife's word.
"A guest in her own room? That is unusual for mother, isn't it? Who was it?"
"How should I know? I wasn't enlightened. When I reached home soon after luncheon, I asked Nannie who had been here, and among others she mentioned a young lady who had asked very particularly to see 'Madame Burnham,' and said that after a while she took the lady to her own sitting room, and she was there yet. She left but a few minutes before you came, a very stylish-looking person, indeed, and quite young. It is fortunate that she did not stay for dinner, as I supposed she would, having spent the day, or I might have been seized with a fit of jealousy."
"Did you say my mother looked worn? Were you in her room?"
"No, indeed! I did not presume; I all but ran against her in the hall, and thought she looked older than usual."
"She may have had some unpleasant news; I think I will run up and see her."