"Who is Harvey?" inquired the big blond man who sat beside her.
"My teenty-weenty hubby," said she, airily.
There were two other men besides the big blond in the party, and the wife of one of them--a balance wheel.
The big blond man stared at his hostess. He expected her to laugh at her own joke, but she did not. The others were discussing the relative merits of the Packard and Peerless cars. He waited a moment and then leaned closer to Nellie"s ear.
"Are you in earnest?" he asked, in low tones.
"About what, Mr. Fairfax?"
"Hubby. Have you got one?"
"Of course I have. Had him for six years. Why?"
He swallowed hard. A wave of red crept up over his jowl and to the very roots of his hair.
"I"ve known you for over a month, Nellie," he said, a hard light in his fishy grey eyes, "and you"ve never mentioned this husband of yours. What"s the game?"
"It"s a guessing game," she said, coolly. "You might guess what I"m wearing this little plain gold ring on my left hand for. It"s there where everybody can see it, isn"t it? You just didn"t take the trouble to look, Mr. Fairfax. Women don"t wear wedding rings for a joke, let me tell you that."
"I never noticed it," he said, huskily. "The truth is, it never entered my head to think you could be a married woman."
"Thought I was divorced, eh?"
"Well, divorces are not uncommon, you know. You girls seem to get rid of husbands quite as easily as you pick them up."
"Lord bless you," said Nellie, in no way offended, "I have never done anything to give Harvey cause for divorce, and I"m sure he"s never done the tiniest thing out of the way. He never treats me cruelly, he never beats me, he doesn"t get tight and break things up, and he never looks at other women. He"s the nicest little husband ever."
She instructed Rachel to fill up Mr. Fairfax"s gla.s.s and pa.s.s the ripe olives. He was watching her, an odd expression in his eyes. A big, smooth-faced man of fifty was he, fat from high living, self-indulgence, and indolence, immaculately dressed to the tips of his toes.
"Speaking of divorce," she went on, without looking at him, "your wife didn"t have much trouble getting hers, I"ve heard."
It was a daring thing to say, but Nellie was from the West, where courage and freshness of vision are regarded as the ant.i.thesis of tact and diplomacy. Tact calls for tact. The diplomatist is powerless if you begin shooting at him. Nellie did not work this out for herself; she merely wanted to put him in a corner where he would have to stand and get it over with.
Fairfax was disconcerted. He showed it. No one ever presumed to discuss the matter with him. It was a very tender subject. His eyes wavered.
"I like your cheek," he growled.
"Don"t you like to talk about it?" she inquired, innocently.
"No," he replied, curtly. "It"s n.o.body"s business, Miss Duluth."
"My, how touchy!" She shivered prettily. "I feel as if some one had thrown a pail of ice water over me."
"We were speaking of your--this husband of yours," he said, quietly.
"Why have you never mentioned him to me? Is it quite fair?"
"It just slipped my mind," she said, in the most casual way. "Besides, I thought you knew. My little girl is four--or is it five?"
"Where do you keep them?"
"I"ve got "em in storage up at Tarrytown. That"s the Sleepy Hollow neighbourhood, isn"t it? I guess that"s why Harvey likes it so well."
"What is his business?"
She looked up quickly. "What is that to you, Mr. Fairfax?"
"Nothing. I am in no way interested in Mr. Duluth."
"His name isn"t Duluth," she flashed, hotly. "If you are not interested in him, let"s drop the subject."
"I retract what I said. I am always interested in curiosities. What"s he like?"
"Well, he"s like a gentleman, if you are really interested in curiosities," she said.
He laughed. "By Jove, you"ve got a ready wit, my dear." He looked at her reflectively, speculatively. "It"s rather a facer to have you turn out to be a married woman."
"Don"t you like married women?"
"Some of "em," he answered, coolly. "But I don"t like to think of you as married."
"Pooh!" she said, and there was a world of meaning in the way she said it.
"Don"t you know that it means a great deal to me?" he demanded, leaning closer and speaking in a lowered voice, tense and eager.
"Pooh!" she repeated.
He flushed again. "I cannot bear the thought of you belonging----"
She interrupted him quickly. "I wouldn"t say it, if I were you."
"But I must say it. I"m in love with you, Nellie, and you know it.
Every drop of blood in my veins is crying out for you, and has been----"
Her face had clouded. "I"ve asked you not to say such things to me."
He stared in amazement. "You are dreaming! I"ve never uttered a word of this sort to you. What are you thinking of? This is the first time I"ve said----"
Nellie was dismayed. It was the first time he had spoken to her in that way. She stammered something about "general principles," but he was regarding her so fixedly that her attempt at dissembling was most unconvincing.
"Or perhaps," said he, almost savagely, but guardedly, "you are confusing me with some one else."
This was broad enough to demand instant resentment. She took refuge in the opportunity.
"Do you mean to insult me, Mr. Fairfax?" she demanded, coldly, drawing back in her chair.
He laughed harshly.