Evie, to whom goodness meant dullness, said, 'I bet he isn't. Is he, Al?'
'I don't know,' said Alix. 'You'd better ask him.'
She added after a moment, 'I'll ask him for you on Sunday, if you like. We're going out somewhere, if it's fine.'
'It was very kind of him to ask me too,' said Kate. 'You must explain to him how it is I can't, with its being Sunday.'
Across the table Alix's eyes met Evie's, suddenly widened in guileless, surprised mirth, with a touch of chagrin.
Evie said, 'Why, whatever did he ask Kate for? He might have known she wouldn't.... Men are ...'
'You're not coming, you're not coming, you're not coming,' said Alix within herself, breathing fast and clenching her napkin tight in her two hands and staring across the table defensively out of narrowed eyes.
So they left it at that.
8
But in the night Evie won. One may begin these things, if sufficiently unhinged and demoralised by private emotions and public events, but one cannot always keep them up.