This determination took the present weight from his conscience; and,
pottering about small concerns of his own, he ignored them comfortably.
They appeared late, dirty and hot, for dinner; and it was eight o'clock
before Mariana came down in a gown like a white-petalled flower. She
wore no rings, but about her throat was a necklace of old-fashioned seed
pearls in loops and rosettes. "It's family," she told them; "it belonged
to Caroline Penny. And she married a Quaker, too; a David Forsythe." She
stopped suddenly, and Howat Penny recalled the tradition that Caroline
Penny, Gilbert's daughter, had appropriated her sister Myrtle's suitor.
Mariana favoured him with a fleet glance, the quiver of a reprehensible
wink. He glared back at her choking with suppressed wrath. "I have a
wonderful idea for to-morrow," she proceeded tranquilly; "we'll take
lunch, and leave Honduras, and go to Myrtle Forge for the day."
Her design was unfolded so rapidly, her directions to Rudolph so
explicit, that he had no opportunity to oppose his plan of sending her
away in the morning; and his impotence committed him to her suggestion.
She could go in the evening almost as well. After dinner he rattled the
dominoes significantly, but Mariana, smiling at him absently, went
through the room and out upon the porch.
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