“Couldn’t you have made a little effort in order that I shouldn’t have had to go all that way alone?” She herself made a great one to speak calmly and pleasantly. The echoes of Ich liebe dich were still faintly in her ears, and if he would only turn and take her in his arms, and say, “Look, old girl, I’m sorry. I know I’m a social shirker, but I forgot you would have to go alone,” she was ready to return the pressure of his arms. Women can exist on very little love, very few caresses from the man they care for, and Claudia was in the mood to make every allowance for him.
He answered her rather mechanically, trying to find the correct place for the volume.
“Oh, well! you like dinner-parties, and it’s not so far in the motor. It’s not the day of the horse-brougham.... You are my social shop-window, and”—with blunt humour—“it’s very nicely dressed. I wonder where that book of Burke’s has got to? Besides I wanted to get hold of Fritz, I wanted his opinion on a case.”
“You particularly asked me to accept this invitation as the General is an old friend of your family.”
“Well, it does just as well if you go,” he said imperturbably, mixing himself a whiskey and soda. “They understand how busy I am.”
“Suppose—I don’t understand.” Her lips were compressed until the soft curves had disappeared, and the determination and independence of the chin were emphasized. He looked up from the syphon in surprise at her tone.
“Were they awfully annoyed at my not turning up? I suppose Mrs. Rivington scratched a little.”
“I am not concerned with the Rivingtons. I am talking of myself, of my feelings on the subject.” She was beginning to speak a little more quickly now. The cold, abstracted look in his eyes stung her. He could not even realize that she was hurt and angry. “I am not here merely as your social shop-window, as you call it. I am not here merely as your hausfrau, to order your food and entertain and visit your friends. That is the way in which you have lately been regarding me.... Do you realize how often I have to go out in the evening alone?”
“I’m sorry, but my work——”