66 Feathers smiled grimly, meeting her eyes.
"Mrs. Lawless, may you be forgiven!" he said solemnly. "And may I also remind you that if you want to be in time for the show, you'll have to go without the water ice which I see they promise us as the final tit-bit on the menu."
"I hate water ices," Marie declared. "And I'm quite ready when you are." She looked at her husband.
"Don't wait for me, my child," said Chris. "Run away and amuse yourself."
Marie rose from the table quietly.
"I'll just get my coat," she said to Feathers. She walked down the room between the crowded tables, the eyes of both men following her.
She made a pathetic little figure, so Feathers thought, and was angry with himself for the thought. He did not want to think of her as unhappy. He could not imagine why he always read sadness in her face.
He turned to Chris. "Why don't you come with us?" he asked abruptly.
Chris opened his eyes in faint astonishment.
"What! Be penned up in a stuffy concert hall all the evening?" he said.