Part 28 (1/2)
”No.”
”May I come around and see you for a few minutes?”
”Yes.”
”All right,” he said briefly.
CHAPTER XI
The door of the apartment stood ajar and he walked in. Athalie, still in her evening gown, rose from the sofa before the fire, dropping the white Angora, Hafiz, from her lap.
”It's so good of you, Clive,” she said, offering her hand.
”It's good of _you_, Athalie, to let me come.”
”_Let_ you!” There was a smile on her sensitive lips, scarcely perceptible.
He dropped coat, hat, and walking stick across a chair; she seated herself on the sofa, and he came over and found a place for himself beside her.
”It's been a long time, Athalie. Has it seemed so to you?”
She nodded. Hafiz, marching to and fro, his plumy tail curling around her knees, looked up at his mistress out of sapphire eyes.
”Jump, darling,” she said invitingly. Hafiz sprang onto her lap with a quick contented little mew, stretched his superb neck and began to rub against her shoulder, purring ecstatically.
”He'll cover me with long white hairs,” she remarked to Clive, ”but I don't care. Isn't he a beauty? Hasn't he seraphic eyes and angelic manners?”
Clive nodded, watching the cat with sombre and detached interest.
She said, stroking Hafiz and looking down at the magnificent animal: ”Did you have a pleasant evening, Clive?”
”Not very.”
”I'm sorry. Your party seemed to be such a very gay one.”
”They made a lot of noise.”
She laughed: ”Is that a very gracious way to put it?”
”Probably not.... Where had you been before you appeared at the Regina?”
”To see some moving pictures taken in the South American jungle. It was really wonderful, Clive: there were parrots and monkeys and crocodiles and wild pigs--peccaries I think they are called--and then a big, spotted, chunky-headed jaguar stalked into view! I was so excited, so interested--”
”Where was it?”
”On the middle fork of the upper Amazon--”
”I mean where were the films exhibited?”