"Lulu! You hear him? What you going to say to that?"
Lulu shook her head. "He isn't in earnest," she said.
"I am in earnest—hope to die," Ninian declared. He was on two legs of his chair and was slightly tilting, so that the effect of his earnestness was impaired. But he was obviously in earnest.
They were looking at Lulu again. And now she looked at Ninian, and there was something terrible in that look which tried to ask him, alone, about this thing.
Dwight exploded. "There was a fellow I know there in the theatre," he cried. "I'll get him on the line. He could tell me if there's any way—" and was off.
Ina inexplicably began touching away tears. "Oh," she said, "what will mamma say?"
Lulu hardly heard her. Mrs. Bett was incalculably distant.
"You sure?" Lulu said low to Ninian.
For the first time, something in her exceeding isolation really touched him.
"Say," he said, "you come on with me. We'll have it done over again somewhere, if you say so."