Part 29 (1/2)

”I don't feel that we have any right to be so happy with the whole continent of Europe in the state it's in,” Caroline whispered in reply.

”I feel better about the continent of Europe than I did a while back,”

Billy said, contentedly.

”h.e.l.lo, everybody,” Preston Eustace said as Michael held the door for him. ”How's everything, Caroline?”

”All right,” Caroline said. Then she added unnecessarily, ”You--you know Betty, don't you?”

”I used to know Betty,” he said slowly.

The two looked at each other, with that look of incredulity with which lovers sometimes greet each other after absence and estrangement.

”This can't be you,” their eyes seem to be saying, ”I've disposed of you long since, G.o.d help me!”

”How do you do, Preston?” Betty said, giving him her hand. Then she smiled faintly, and added with a caricature of her usual manner: ”Lovely weather we're having for this time of year, aren't we?”

”I'm very fond of you, Betty,”--d.i.c.k smiled as she sank into the chair beside him and Preston turned to his sister. ”I think you're a little sport.”

”I don't know how you can, d.i.c.ky,” she smiled at him forlornly. ”I've got a bad black heart, and I play the wrong kind of games.”

”Well, I see through them, so it's all right. What's this about Nancy?”

”I'll tell you later,” Betty said; ”there she comes now.”

Nancy, stimulated by ma.s.sage and steam, her hair dressed by a professional; powdered, and for the first time in her life rouged to hide the tell-tale absence of her natural quickening color, came forward to meet her guests in supreme unconsciousness of the pathos of the effect she had achieved. She was dressed in snowy white like a bride,--the only gown she had that was in keeping with the holiday decorations, and she moved a little clumsily, as if her brain had found itself suddenly in charge of an unfamiliar set of reflexes. Her lids drooped over burning eyes that had known no sleep for many nights, and every line and lineament of her face was stamped with pain.

”I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting,” she said. Her voice, curiously, was the only natural thing about her. ”I've been scouring off every vestige of my work-a-day self, and that takes time. Thank you for the roses, d.i.c.k, but the only flowers I could have worn with this color scheme would have been geraniums.”

”I'll send you some geraniums to-morrow.”

”Don't,” she said. ”How do you do, Preston?”

She gave him a cold hand, and he stared at her almost as he had stared at Betty. He was a tall grave-looking youth, with Caroline's straight features and olive coloring, and a shock of heavy blond hair.

”I hope you'll like your party,” Nancy hurried on. ”Gaspard is bursting with pride in it. I think it would be a nice thing to have him in and drink his health after the coffee. He would never forget the honor.”

”My G.o.d!” d.i.c.k said in an undertone to Betty, ”how long has she been like this?”

”I'll tell you later,” she promised him again.

With the serving of the first course of dinner--Gaspard's wonderful _Puree Mongol_--an artist's dream of all the most delicate vegetables in the world mingled together as the clouds are mingled, the tensity in the air seemed to break and shatter about them in showers of brilliant, artificial mirth, which presently, because they were all young and fond of one another and their group had the habit of intimacy, became less and less strained and unreal.

Nancy's tired eyes lost something of their unnatural glitter, and Betty seemed more of a woman than a scarlet sprite, while Caroline's smile began to reflect something of the real gladness that possessed her soul. d.i.c.k and Billy took up the burden of the entertainment of the party, and gave at least an excellent imitation of inspirational gaiety.

”This _filet of sole_,” Billy observed as he sampled his second course appreciatively, ”is common or barnyard flounder,--and the shrimp and the oyster crab, and that mushroom of the sea, and the other little creature in the corner of my plate who shall be nameless, because I have no idea what his name is,--are all put in to make it harder.”

”Gaspard is using some of the simpler native products now instead of the high-priced imported ones,” Nancy said eagerly, ”and he is getting wonderful results, I think.”

”Flounder _a la Francaise_ is all right,” d.i.c.k said.

”Our restaurant has reformed,” Betty said. ”We're running it on a strictly business basis.”