"By making me want somebody else more."
Leighton looked at her keenly for a moment.
"I shall never do that," he said.
"Somehow," said Folly, still smiling, "you"ve made a fair start. It isn"t you exactly. It"s that you are just Lew--the whole of Lew and a lot of things added."
"You are blind," said Leighton; "you don"t know the difference between addition and subtraction. Anyway, even if I could do it, I wouldn"t. I want to fight fair--fair with Lew, fair with you, if you"re fair with me, and fair with myself. But I want to fight, not play. Will you lunch at our place to-morrow?"
"Let"s see. To-morrow," said Folly, tapping her lips to hide a tiny yawn. "Well, we can"t fight unless we get together, can we? Yes, I"ll come."
CHAPTER x.x.xVIII
Immediately upon leaving Folly, Leighton called on Lady Derl, by appointment. He had already been to Helene with his trouble over Lewis.
It was she that had told him to see Folly. "In a case of even the simplest subtraction," Helene had said, "you"ve got to know what you"re trying to subtract from."
As usual, Leighton was shown into Helene"s intimate room. He closed the door after him quickly.
"Helene," he said, "where"s the key?"
"The key? What key?"
"The key to this door. I want to lock myself in here."
"Poor frightened thing!" laughed Helene. "Turn around and let me look at you. Is your face scratched?"
Leighton pulled out a handkerchief and mopped his brow. He stared at each familiar object in the room as though he were trying to recall a truant mind. Finally his eyes came around to Helene, and with a quick smile and the old toss of the head with which he was wont to throw off a mood, he brought himself back to the present.
"With time and patience," he said, as he sat down, "anybody can get a grip on a personality, but a mighty impersonality is like the Deluge or--or a steam-roller. Do I look flattened out?"
"You do, rather, for you," said Helene. "Tell me about it from the beginning." And Leighton did. It took him half an hour. When he got through, she said, still smiling, "I"d like to meet this Folly person."
"I see I"ve talked for nothing," said Leighton. "It isn"t the Folly person that flattened me out. It"s what"s around her, outside of her."
"That"s what you think," said Helene. "But, still, it"s she I"d like to see."
"That"s lucky," said Leighton, "because you "re going to."
"When?"
"To-morrow. Lunch."
"What"s the idea?"
"The idea is this. I"ve been looking her up, viewing her cradle and her mother"s cradle and that sort of thing. I"d have liked to have viewed her father"s as well, but it"s a case of _cherchez l"homme_."
"Well?"
"Well, the young lady"s an emanation from sub-c.o.c.kneydom. My idea is that that kind can"t stand the table and _grande-dame_ test. I"ll supply the table, with fixtures, and you"re going to be the _grande-dame_."
Leighton"s face suddenly became boyishly pleading. "Will you, Helene?
It"s more than an imposition to ask; it"s an impertinence."
For a moment Helene was serious and looked it.
"Glen," she said, "you and I don"t have to ask that sort of thing--not with each other. We take it. Of course I"ll come. I"ll enjoy it. But--do you think she"s really raw enough to give herself away?"
"I don"t know," said Leighton, gloomily. "I couldn"t think of anything else. Lunch begins to look a bit thin for the job. At first I"d thought of one of those green-eyed Barbadian c.o.c.ktails, followed by that pale-eyed Swiss wine of mine that Ivory calls the Amber Witch with the hidden punch. But I"ve given them up. You see, I told her I"d play fair if she did."
"Yes, I see," said Helene.
A psychologist would have liked an hour to study the lightning change that came over Folly when, on the following day, she suddenly realized Lady Derl. Folly had blown into the flat like a bit of gay thistledown.
For her, to lunch with one man was the stop this side of boredom; but to lunch with two was a delight. If she was allowed to pick the other woman, she could just put up with a _partie carree_. But she hadn"t picked out Lady Derl. Lady Derl was something that had never touched her world except from a box across the footlights on an occasional premiere.
One flash of Folly"s eyes took in Lady Derl, and then her long lashes drooped before Lady Derl had time to take in Folly. Folly"s whole self drooped. She was still a bit of thistle-down, but its pal, the breeze, was gone. She crossed the room, barely touched Helene"s hand, and then fluttered down to stillness on the edge of a big chair.
At lunch Leighton made desperate efforts to start a breeze and failed.
Folly said "Yes" and Folly said "No,"--very softly, too,--and that was all. Leighton stepped on Helene"s foot several times, but to no avail.
Lady Derl was watching Folly. "Could she keep it up? Yes, she could."
Lady Derl couldn"t talk; she wanted to laugh.
Throughout that interminable lunch, Helene, Leighton, and Lewis saw nothing, thought nothing, but Folly, and, for all any one of them could see, Folly didn"t know it. "Oh, you adorable _cat!_" thought Lady Derl.
"Oh, you _adorable!_" sighed Lewis to himself, and, inwardly, Leighton groaned, "Oh, you _you!_"
Within twenty minutes of leaving the table, Folly rose from the edge of her chair and crossed to Lady Derl.
"Good-by," she breathed shyly, holding out her hand. "I must go now."
Lewis sprang up to accompany her. They could see he was aching to get away somewhere where he could put his arms around her. Leighton crossed to the door and held it open. "Good-by," said Folly to him, holding out her hand. "I"ve had _such_ a good time."
At the word "such," Leighton winced and flushed. Then he grinned.
"Good-by, Folly," he said. "I hope you"ll come again when you"re feeling more like yourself."
He closed the door and then rang for Nelton. Nelton came.
"Bring me the iodine," said Leighton, as with his handkerchief he stanched the blood from a bad scratch on his right wrist.
"Heavens! Glen," cried Helene, "how did you get that?
"Didn"t you see me jump when she said "_such_"?" asked Leighton. Then they sat down, and Helene laughed for a long time, while Leighton tried not to. "Oh," he said at last, "I wish we didn"t have to think of Lew!"
"You may ask for my advice now," said Helene, a little breathlessly.
"I"ve got it ready."
"Thank G.o.d!" said Leighton. "What is it?"