“Nonsense! Really, Jack, that’s good, as coming from you! I talk nonsense! I don’t wish to enter into argument—least of all with you; but this is too much.”
“Listen to me!”
Considering that Mr Carter’s face was so very close to Mr Purchase’s, and that he was not speaking in the gentlest tone of voice, one could hardly see how he could help but listen. Their demeanour was marked by so much—I will call it, eagerness—that I was seriously beginning to inquire of myself if the temperature of the room was not getting a trifle warm. What was the exciting cause I was at a loss to determine; yet it did seem incredible that such lifelong friends should wrangle about nothing. If the cause of the heat was me—which seemed more incredible still—I could only declare that I was conscious of no sane reason why it should be.
I was almost on the point of inquiring if either of them suffered from intermittent attacks of softening of the brain, when the door opened, and in came Audrey and Doris. I sincerely hoped that they had been long enough in dressing. They might find that they had been just a trifle too long.
CHAPTER VIII.
MEN ARE DECEIVERS EVER
I could not but feel how nice they looked. Not for the first time, by any means, it was a comfort to think that they were my sisters. It is all very well to inveigh against the tremendous time a woman takes in dressing—and I am quite willing to admit that, over and over again, the girls have as nearly as possible driven me mad!—but if she wants to look her best, she has to. It is just those little delicate touches which require care and thought, and cannot be hurried over, which complete the picture. After one is completely dressed, one can often advantageously spend another quarter-of-an-hour or twenty minutes in artistic tittivation; and sometimes the result is worth it.
When I began to take in the details of Audrey and Doris, I realised that it had been worth it in their case. They were just exquisite; a delight to the eye, a refreshment to the senses; perfect pictures, of a kind I never could be. I was laughingly conscious of the absurdity of my posing as a rival to them. My impulse was to hurry to them, presenting the two nosegays, explaining that I had been merely acting as custodian until they came. I fully expected that there would be an instant end to those two men’s preposterous behaviour, so far as I was concerned, taking it for granted that they would promptly rush back to their allegiance, leaving me with the recollection of the lop-sided joke we three had had together.
However, to my amazement, and almost to my horror, nothing of the kind took place. Instead, Mr Purchase and Mr Carter continued their nonsensical, half-quarrelsome argument, totally ignoring Audrey and Doris, who remained a few paces inside the door, a growing suggestion of astonishment upon their faces. Presently Audrey spoke.
“I hope that we have not kept you waiting. How are you, Mr Carter?”
Mr Carter turned, nodded, and addressed her from where he stood. Cold shivers went up and down my back. He had never treated me quite so free-and-easily as that.