"I wanted to say good-bye
to you all," she announced. "I am going on tour. Leave at midnight. Just
had a wire from Mrs. Blane." There were polite Polder exclamations,
regret, congratulations; through which the son of the house moodily
gazed at the carpet. "Haven't you anything to say to Hatty?" his mother
demanded. "And after all the passes she sent you." Howat Penny saw
Mariana's gaze rest swiftly on the latest comer's obvious good looks;
and the scrutiny, he was certain, held a cold feminine appraisal. As
they descended to leave Mariana lingered on the stairs with Jim. The
latter closed the door of the public motor with a low, intense mutter;
and, moving away, Howat Penny lit a cigarette with a breath of audible
relief.
"I don't know which I detest most," Mariana declared viciously, "you or
myself."
"You might include that fish," he added plaintively. She gazed at him in
cold contempt, with an ugly, protruding lip. Nothing else was said until
they were in the opened room at the Jannans. Mariana flung herself on a
broad divan, with her narrowed gaze fixed on the points of her slippers.
"Comfortable, isn't it," she addressed him; "this feeling of
superiority?" He placidly nodded, inwardly highly pleased. "I wish I'd
married Jim the first week I knew him, without trying to be so dam'
admirable.
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