Noel left it at that. He never argued with his mother.
Gordon had reckoned without his Helen, who prided herself on being modern. When he told her he would rather she dined there the following night, she wanted to know the reason.
“Not that beautiful Mrs. Humphries who ran off with Petrovitch? I’d quite forgotten she was your aunt. What nonsense, Gordon! Of course I shall come. As if her past made the slightest difference to me! I hear she’s still quite lovely.”
Gordon reported this new development to his mother in his own way.
“Helen’s been awfully nice about it,” Millie told her husband later. “She told Gordon she didn’t mind meeting Connie at all, and that as she was marrying into the family she intended taking the rough with the smooth. She’s such a sensible girl!”
[CHAPTER XVII]
Judy had neither seen nor heard from Major Crosby since the day they had tea together at Madame Claire’s. She had written him a note to thank him for his flowers, the sending of which had both pleased and touched her. Knowing his poverty and his reserve, she read into his gift, more, perhaps, than he had intended she should. Chip looked upon the sending of flowers as the natural tribute to be paid to any charming woman, and imagined in his simplicity, that she must receive very many such gifts. She guessed this, but at the same time she also guessed that never before in his life, probably, had he sent flowers to a woman. Pink roses, too.…
She wondered about him a good deal—wondered what he did with himself evenings, and where and how he spent his Sundays. Like Madame Claire, she felt that Chip was a man not marked for success, but at least she was determined that, whatever happened, his life should be less empty and colorless because of that accident in the fog.
On the whole, however, she dreaded the evening for him. She felt that he would be neither amused nor benefited by it. She knew she would get little help from her mother, and as for Gordon and Helen, they never bothered with people unless they mattered.