" He glanced with a veiled anxiety at
the latter but could read nothing from the lowered, pinched countenance.
"We could leave together if you are tired of us," Mariana continued.
"It's James, really, who is making all the trouble. He has some stupid
idea about nobility of conduct and my best good. But the real truth is
that he's afraid, for me, of course, and so he won't listen."
"Won't you show her that it is impossible?" the younger man cried at
Howat Penny. "I can't take advantage of her heavenly courage. She
doesn't realize the weight of opinion. It would make--"
"Stuff," she interrupted. "You'd make steel, and I would make an
occasional dessert. You must be told, Jimmy, that the afternoon calling
you have confused with life really isn't done any more. You have been
brought up in rather a deadly way. You ought to be saved from yourself.
I am a very mature person, and I am advising you calmly."
The dinner had come to an end; a decanter, in old-fashioned blue and
gold cutting, of brandy, a silver basket of oranges, the coffee cups and
glasses, were all that remained; and James Polder played with the cut
fruit, the half-full cordial glass before him. "I am going to be
brutally frank, Jimmy," she said again. "You know that is a habit of
mine, too.
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