Everest stooped down and kissed her.
"My darling, there is no need to cry about it. They can't do us any harm. If they join camp with us for a time, we can go on alone afterwards. I don't think it's wise or right to quarrel with them and make enemies of them."
After what he had said, and the tone and manner in which he had spoken, the girl felt it would be unwise to urge anything in dissent or opposition. She bent her head over his hands, and kissed them in silence, and Everest took Merton's card and tore it into shreds, as if he felt he would like to wring the owner's neck, and threw them into the grate.
Meanwhile, in two other rooms, on the opposite side of the hotel, Sybil and her brother were also dressing for dinner. She was in her room, and through the open communicating door she heard her brother ask the servant, when he returned from the Lanarks' room, what the recipient had said on getting his card.
"The gentleman only said 'Damn' sir," returned the man impassively.
Sybil heard this answer in her room, and she looked into the mirror opposite her and laughed.
When the Lanarks came down from their room the head waiter met them at the foot of the stairs.
"Mr. Graham said, sir, he was sure you'd like to dine with his party, so I reserved a table for six, in the window, for you all together."
Regina saw Everest knit his brows, but he only nodded and said: