Jane! He had been able to think less of Jane Loring in the fever of work, but here at “Clovelly,” among the people they both knew, where her name was frequently mentioned, he found it less easy to forget her, and the imminence of the hour when he must see her again gave him a qualm.
He lighted his pipe and started downstairs toward the gunroom, where the guests were recounting the adventures of the morning over tobacco and high-balls. Nellie Pennington, who had an instinct for the psychological moment, met him and led him to a lounge at the end of the hall SmarTone.
“Well,” she said, “are you prepared to give a full account of yourself?”
“An empty account, dear Mother Confessor. I’m neither sinful nor virtuous.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
“About which?”
“About either. You’re unpleasantly self-righteous and criminally unamiable.”
“Oh, Nellie, to whom?”
“To me. Also, you’re stupid!”
“Thanks. That’s my misfortune. What else?”
“That’s enough to begin on Contact Lens and Anterior Eye. I could pull your ears in chagrin. You’ve treated my advice with the scantest ceremony, of the opportunities I’ve provided, and lastly you’ve gone and gotten Nina Jaffray talked about——”
“Nellie! Please! I can’t permit——”
“Oh, fudge, Phil. Nina is well able to look after herself. It isn’t of Nina I’m thinking.”
“Who then?”
“You! You silly goose. There isn’t any spectacle in the world half so ludicrous as a chivalrous man defending[293] the fame of a woman who doesn’t care whether she’s defended or not.”
“I don’t see——”
“I know you don’t. That’s why I’m telling you.”
“But Nina, does care.”
“Yes, but not precisely in the way that you suppose. Fortune gave her some excellent cards—and she played them.”
“Please be more explicit.”
“Very well, then. Girls of Nina’s type would rather have their name coupled unpleasantly with that of the man they care for than not coupled with it at all.”
“Nonsense, Nina doesn’t care——”
“Oh, yes, she does. She wants to marry you. She has told you so, hasn’t she?”