"Some people can never become connoisseurs," she retorted quickly.
Gore laughed, but without offence.
"Not of treasures, perhaps, but with experience and observation, surely any one can become a judge of men--and women."
Clodagh forced herself to smile.
"You disapprove of women?"
"Disapprove! Indeed, no!"
But here Barnard interposed with one of his suave gestures.
"He only disapproves of the modern woman, Mrs. Milbanke!"
Gore turned to him good-humouredly.
"Wrong, Barnard!" he said. "I admire the modern woman--the truly modern woman. It is the society woman--of any period--that I lose patience with."
Barnard smiled.
"The present-day woman is very proud of her complex life," he said smoothly, "her big card debts and her little intrigues."
Gore"s healthy face turned a shade redder.
"I know!" he said tersely. "But to me, a woman with no higher ambition than the playing of cards winter and summer, afternoon after afternoon, is--is pitiable."
Clodagh leant forward.
"Perhaps they play cards because they have no real interests."
He looked at her quickly.
"And why have they no real interests, Mrs. Milbanke? Isn"t it because they reject all simple, natural, wholesome things? Such women do not know the meaning of the word home. They do not want a home--or home life, as the women of the last generation understood it."
"Ah, there you touch bottom, my dear Gore! There you are in your depth!" Again Barnard gave one of his smooth, tactful laughs. "This young man has a great pull over us, Mrs. Milbanke, when he compares the present generation with the past."
At the suave words, Gore made a slightly embarra.s.sed gesture, and looked instinctively towards Milbanke.
"Forgive my tirade, sir!" he said a little confusedly. "Mr. Barnard is right. I have rather a high ideal of womanhood. I am possessed of a--a very remarkable mother."
"A mother!" Clodagh looked round impulsively. "Oh, tell me what she is like!"
With a certain spontaneity, Gore turned to respond to her question; but before his eyes met hers, their glance was intercepted by a shrewd, amused, inquiring look from Barnard. The effect of the look was strange. His emotion so suddenly aroused, died suddenly. His face became pa.s.sive, even a little cold. He straightened his shoulders, and gave the restrained, self-conscious laugh that the Englishman resorts to when he feels that his sentiments have entrapped him.
"Oh, you must not ask me what my mother is like, Mrs. Milbanke," he said. "I could not give you an unbia.s.sed opinion. As it is, I have been wasting your time unpardonably. Barnard, do you think Mrs. Milbanke will excuse you for ten minutes?"
Barnard rose slowly.
"Do not put me to the pain of saying "yes,"" he exclaimed. "Let me imagine that I am tearing myself away against Mrs. Milbanke"s express desire. Au revoir, Mrs. Milbanke! Au revoir, James!"
He nodded, and sauntered off in the direction of the hotel door.
A moment later Gore shook hands silently with Clodagh and her husband, and moved away in the same direction.
As he disappeared into the hotel, Milbanke folded his newspaper with interested haste.
"What a well-mannered young man!" he said. "Who is he? What is his name?"
Clodagh was sitting very still, her hands clasped in her lap, her eyes fixed upon some distant object.
"Gore," she said shortly--"Gore. Sir Walter Gore."
"Gore!" Milbanke repeated the name as though it pleased him. "A fine young fellow! Very unlike the majority of young men of the present day."
Clodagh said nothing.
"Don"t you agree with me, my dear?"
As if by an effort, she recalled her wandering gaze, turned her head slowly, and looked at her husband.
"He--he certainly seems unlike other people," she admitted in a low voice.
After this rejoinder there was silence. Clodagh, her brows drawn together in a perplexed frown, relapsed into her former absorbed contemplation; while Milbanke, having changed his position once or twice, shook out the sheets of his newspaper and buried himself in the lengthy report of a scientific meeting.
But scarcely had he reached the end of his first paragraph, than a large shadow fell across the page, and, looking up quickly, he saw the ponderous figure of Mr. Angelo Tomes.
At the sight of his hero he started, coloured with pleasure, and rose hastily.
"Mr. Tomes!" he exclaimed. "Clodagh, my dear, here is Mr. Tomes!"
Clodagh turned without enthusiasm, and looked at the loose figure and unkempt hair of the scientist.
"I do not think you and my--my wife have met, Mr. Tomes!" Milbanke broke in with a nervous attempt at geniality.
Mr. Tomes bowed.
"No; but I have many times seen Mrs. Milbanke," he said ponderously.
Clodagh bent her head, noting with the fastidious intolerance of youth that his clothes were baggy and his hands unclean.
Milbanke gave a nervous, conciliatory laugh.
"I--I have noticed that great men are always observant," he said jocularly.
Mr. Tomes smiled.
"That is scarcely a compliment to Mrs. Milbanke," he interposed consciously.