"I'm very glad to see you. Won't you sit down?" she heard herself saying inanely.
Momma rose, clutching her kimono around her.
"Well, I'll be going, as I have a very important engagement, and you'll excuse me, Mr. Masters, I'm sure," she said archly. "So charmed to have met you," she added with artificial sweetness.
The closing of the door behind her left them facing each other with nothing but awkwardness between them. He had changed indefinably, though the square lines of his face, the honest blue eyes, the firm lips were as she remembered them. Under the smooth-shaven skin of his cheeks there was the blue shadow of a stubborn beard. He appeared prosperous, but not quite sure of himself, in a well-made broadcloth suit, and he held a new black derby hat in his left hand.
"I'm awfully glad to see you," she managed to say. "I'm—so surprised. I didn't know you were coming."
"I sent you a note on the wires," he replied. "I wasn't sure till last night I could get off."
"I didn't get it," she said. Silence hung over them like a threat. "I'm sorry I didn't know. I hope you didn't have to wait long. I'm glad you're looking so well. How is your mother?"
"She's all right. How is yours?"
"She's very well, thank you." She caught her laugh on a hysterical note. "Well—how do you like San Francisco weather?"
His bewilderment faded slowly into a grin.