“I hear you have just come to New York, Miss Nash.”
“Yes.”
“Is this your first visit to—”
“No.”
Miss Proudfoot rancorously took a long drink of water.
Nelly attempted, bravely:
“Do you like New York, Miss Nash?”
“Yes.”
Nelly and Miss Proudfoot and Tom Poppins began discussing shoe-stores, all at once and very rapidly, while hot and uncomfortable Mr. Wrenn tried to think of something to say…. Good Lord, suppose Istra “queered” him at Mrs. Arty’s!… Then he was angry at himself and all of them for not appreciating her. How exquisite she looked, with her tired white face!
As the soup-plates were being removed by Annie, the maid, with an elaborate confusion and a general passing of plates down the line, Istra Nash peered at the maid petulantly. Mrs. Arty frowned, then grew artificially pleasant and said: