The horn of a car sounded through the open windows, and he looked at his watch.
"Lady Knightrider wants to leave early," he said. "We've got rather a long drive to Raglan."
"Don't go for a minute, Jack. I've got something to say to you."
It was that imperilling of soul—if there were souls and if they could be imperilled. Reparation was needed, but, unless she promised to marry him.... He would hardly want to marry her now....
"Can you spare me another cigarette?" she asked.
He handed her his case and sat down, waiting without a change of expression. Since he was not going to marry Barbara, everything else seemed wonderfully trivial. He rather hoped that she was not going to explain or apologize, because he was too tired for a scene, too tired to argue, too tired even to nod or say "yes" and "no" in the right place.... There was no point in sitting there, if she had nothing to say. And three hours earlier he had decided that, all things considered, it would be more proper not to announce their engagement until he had Lord Crawleigh's formal assent....
There was a sound of other voices in the hall, and George Oakleigh appeared in the doorway. He looked anxiously round the room and pounced upon the bachelor supper-party at his elbow. After a moment's earnest whispering, Summertown banged his fist on the table until the glasses rang.
"Not to put too fine a point on it, Hell," he cried. "One good thing—you're in this, too, Charles, my lad."
Framlingham emptied his glass and refilled it unhurriedly.
"To declare war in the middle of supper is not the act of a gentleman," he pronounced.