Helen started to fetch her just as the pallid chaperon was entering the door.
She shook hands with Covington. She observed that he was too deeply affected at sight of her to speak, and it awakened fresh misgivings in her mind.
"H-how d'y do! I didn't know you were—here!" he stammered.
"I thought it would surprise you!" Roberta smiled wanly, amazed at her own self-control, then froze in her tracks as Jean announced:
"Jack will be home to-night, Culver. He'll be delighted to see you!"
J. Wallingford Speed offered a diversion by bursting into a hollow laugh. Now that the world was in league to work his own downfall, it was time someone else had a touch of suffering. To this end he inquired how the toe had come to be broken.
"I broke it in Omaha—automobile accident." Culver was fighting to master himself.
"Omaha! Did you stop in Omaha?" inquired Jean.
"A city of beautiful women," Speed reflected, audibly. "Somebody step on your foot at a dance?"
"No, of course not! I don't know anybody in Omaha! I went motoring—"