“I did that when I made my choice—when I married you. I couldn’t be disloyal to that. Besides”—and all [318] ]the woman of her went into the words—“you and the two little yous fill my life. I’ve no time for any other devotion.”
He looked down at the head, reddened under the amber lights, at the graceful line of throat and shoulder, at the proud lips that were his. And his arms swept up and round her.
Drama moves swiftly. No pause for explanation once the wheels are set going, no rambling into far corners for side lights as in the novel, but a tornado-like gathering of incident that hurls itself without notice into crashing storm. Life crowded into a few short hours, just as a few short hours so often crowd life into one crashing crisis. Without warning, or at least without warning heeded, one answers the doorbell or opens a telegram or takes up a telephone receiver. And behold, the face blanches, the heart stops beating, to beat again with hammer stroke too horrible to bear!
It happened that Thorne’s roadster drew up under the porte-cochère one May day and, removing dusty goggles, he announced that he had come to talk about a scene that stumped him.
“I’ve traveled to Mecca to consult the Oracle.”
Nancy shook hands enthusiastically. Dick had been away for several days; her favorite mount, Lord Chesterfield, had been taken to town by the head groom for treatment under a famous “vet”; and endless dinners had bored her to a state of loneliness known only to those whose lives have hummed with activity. Her husband would not be back until to-morrow and to put in a few [319] ]hours with Ted in the atmosphere of the theater was a welcome diversion.
When they had discussed pros and cons and the kick in the big scene; when the playwright in hushed voice had told Dicky the usual pirate tale, and the three had lunched together under the trees, Nancy jumped up.
“Ted, will you run me into town this afternoon? I want to have a look at Lord Chesterfield. He went lame last week, you know.”
Thorne beamed.
“Bully! It’s a whale of a day. Why not stay in? We can dine and I’ll run you out early.”