"I"d adore it. Isn"t it lucky we"re neighbours? I"ve been so interested"--she said it as though she had almost intended to say "amused"--"in watching you this past week. You are the most domestic man I know. I never saw a man work so singlemindedly at his house and home. Domesticity is a rare outworn virtue here, I a.s.sure you. It is really quite touching to see a man so devoted these days."
She said these things idly, a little disjointedly, looking at him steadily all the while. Her manner was detached, and yet somehow it impelled him strongly to protest that he was really not a bit domestic.
"Have you met any of the people of the place?" she shifted suddenly,
"Well--I really haven"t had much chance yet--a few of the men."
"Well--you"ll find things pretty mixed. Don"t expect much; one has to take things pretty much as one finds them."
To this simple speech was appended one gesture only--a slight raising of the eyebrows. Yet the effect was to sweep Keith into the intimacy of an inner circle, to suggest that she, too, found society mixed, and to imply--very remotely--that at least certain members of the present company itself were not quite what he--or she--would choose in another environment. In unconscious response to this unspoken thought, Keith glanced about the table. There was a good deal of drinking going on; and the fun was becoming even more obvious and noisy. Mrs. Morrell occasionally sipped at her champagne. She emitted a slight but rather disturbing perfume.
"Why did you come out here, anyway?" she asked him. "I can"t make out.
I"m curious."
"Why shouldn"t I?" demanded Keith.
"Well, men come here either for money, for adventure, or to make a career." She marked each on the tablecloth with the end of a fork.
"Which is it?"
"Guess," laughed Keith.
"You don"t need money--or else you have a wonderful nerve to take the Boyle house. I believe you have the nerve, all right. Men with your sort of close curly hair are never--bashful!" she laughed shortly.
"Boyle"s rent is safe--for a while," admitted Keith.
"Career?" she went on, looking him in the eyes speculatively, and allowing her gaze to sink deep into his. He noticed that her eyes were a gray green, like semi-precious stones of some sorts, with surface lights, but also with grayer radiations that seemed to go below the surface to smouldering depths--disturbing eyes, like the perfume.
"Career?" she repeated. "I think you hold yourself better--a career in the riff-raff of this town." She shook her head archly. "But adventure!
Oh, la! There"s plenty of that--all sorts!" She gave the impression of meaning a great deal more than she said. "I wish I were a man!" she exclaimed, and laughed.
"I"m glad you"re not," rejoined Keith sincerely.
She tapped him lightly on the arm with her fan.
"Oh, la!" she cried.
Keith laughed meaningly and mischievously. He was feeling entirely at home--in his mental shirtsleeves--thoroughly at ease.
"You"re a lawyer, are you not?" she asked him.
"Try to be."
"Going to practise?"
"If any practice comes my way."
She looked at him, smiling slowly.
"Oh, it"ll come fast enough." She seized her gla.s.s and held it to him.
"Here"s to your career!" she cried. "Bottoms up!"
They clinked gla.s.ses and drank.
"You must meet people--influential people," she told him. "We must see what we can do; I"ll have some of them in."
"You"re simply fine to take all this trouble for me!"
She tapped him again on the arm.
"Silly! We take care of our own people, of _course!_ Let"s plan it.
Have you any connections in town at all?"
"Well, I"ve met quite a few people about town, and I have some letters."
"Casual acquaintances are well enough, but your letters?"
"I have one to Calhoun Bennett, and to Mr. Dempster, and Mr. Farwell, and Truett--"
But she was making a wry face.
"What"s the matter with, them?" he demanded.
"Cal Bennett"s all right--but the others--oh, I suppose they"re all right in a business way--but--"
"But, what?"
She made a helpless little gesture.
"I can"t describe it--you know--the sort that are always so keen on doing their _duty!_"
She laughed; and to his subconscious surprise Keith found himself saying sympathetically:
"I know the sort of people who always pay their debts!"
They looked into each other"s eyes and laughed in comradeship. In sober life Keith did his duty reasonably well, and was never far behind financially.
She fell silent for a moment; then with a muttered "excuse me," she leaned directly across his shoulder to impart something low-voiced and giggly to the woman on his right. To do this she leaned her breast against his arm and shoulder. The conversation lasted some seconds.
Keith could not hear a word of it; but he was disturbingly aware of her perfume, the softness of her body, and the warmth that struck even through the intervening clothing. She drew back with a half apology.
"Feminine nonsense," she told him. "Mere man couldn"t be expected to understand." She was herself a little flushed from leaning over, but she appeared not to notice Keith"s rather breathless state. He muttered something, and gulped at his champagne.
"Do you know Mrs. Sherwood?" he asked, merely to say something,
But to his surprise Mrs. Morrell answered him shortly, her manner changing:
"No, I don"t. We draw the line _somewhere_!"
Again she addressed the woman on the right, but this time without leaning across: