How strange that those two men should meet, thought Judy! She remembered telling Claire in one of her letters that it was impossible to imagine two men less alike. And now that she saw them together she knew that what she had said was true.
Major Crosby was introduced to Mr. Colebridge, who was pleased to make his acquaintance, and Madame Claire ordered tea.
“This is a wonderful afternoon for me,” she said. “I don’t often have so many visitors. It’s very exciting.”
It didn’t take Chip more than a second or two to place the other caller. Judy had mentioned an American she had met in Cannes, and lo! Here he was. She had only been home two or three days. He hadn’t waited very long before following after. Judy tried to talk to him, but Mr. Colebridge had the floor and meant to keep it. Chip retired into his shell—that haven of refuge from which he seldom advanced very far in company—and contented himself with looking and listening. He looked chiefly at Judy. She was looking very lovely, he thought. No wonder that people followed her from Cannes to London. Powerful, authoritative-looking people, who booked large outside cabins on ocean liners as a matter of course, and always gravitated to the most expensive hotels. What a fool he had been! This man could give her everything. Why not, as he seemed to own it? What was he saying?
“So I told them I wasn’t having any. I told them I had all the irons in the fire I wanted. It was a good thing all right, but say, what’s the good of any more money to me? I’ve got all I want right now. And if I ever do make any more, it will be just to turn it over to my wife if I’ve got one”—he looked straight at Judy as he said it—“and say, ‘There you are. It’s yours to do as you like with. Throw it away, spend it, it’s all the same to me. So long as you have a good time with it, and it makes you happy.’”
“And of course it will,” said Judy with faint sarcasm.
“Sure it will,” he agreed, taking her words at their face value. “I guess it’s what every woman wants. Isn’t that so, Lady Gregory?”
Madame Claire regarded him seriously.
“You never can tell, Mr. Colebridge,” she said. “Women are the most unaccountable creatures. Sometimes it takes more than money to make them happy.”
“Oh, well,” Mr. Colebridge defended the sex, “when it comes to unreasonableness, I guess men aren’t all reasonable either.”