"Bear it? Did you suppose Jack wasn't coming?" asked Silvette so naïvely that the corners of Mr. Rivett's eyes cracked into wrinkles.
"All right, I'll come," said Diana, with never a thought for Scott Wallace; but, thinking of Edgerton, she had meant to go from the first.
As Silvette, on her future father-in-law's arm, walked on toward the drawing-room, Colonel Curmew appeared from the billiard room.
"Oh," said Diana, "I am so sorry to have kept you waiting. I was talking to my sister about going to town to-morrow."
"I want to see you before you go," said Curmew in a low voice. "It can't be done now—they're waiting for us, and Mrs. Wemyss is developing a temper. When can I see you?"
"Why, I don't know," she said, smiling. "What have you to say to me that cannot be said now?"
The colonel's eyes popped, and he leered at her, not doubting her coquetry.
"On the terrace after cards," he said, curling his mustache. "Is that understood?"
"Indeed, it is not, Colonel Curmew!" she said, amused. "I shall retire early, because I have an early train to catch."
The colonel's face darkened. There were limits to coquetry.