bhorred. It was difficult to approach Lily here. Was it Sylvia who was
making it difficult? He must talk to Sylvia and explain that he had no
predatory intentions. She would surely be glad that he wanted to marry
Lily. Or would she not? Michael jumped up and tinkled the lusters on the
mantelshelf. "Sweet," said the canary in the brass cage: the rain
sizzled without. Faintly pervading this small square room was the
malaise of someone's jealousy. The tentative solution that was
propounding itself did not come from his own impression of Sylvia, but
it seemed positively to be an emanation from the four walls of the room
which in the stillness was able to force its reality upon him. "Sweet,"
said the canary: the lusters stopped their tinkling: the rain sizzled
steadily outside.

Lunch at Kettner's was a great success. At least Michael thought it was
a great success, because Lily looked exquisite against the bronzy walls,
and her hair on this dull day seemed not to lack sunlight, but rather to
give to the atmosphere a thought of the sun, the rare and wintry sun.
Sylvia talked a great deal in her deep voice, and he was conscious that
the other people in the restaurant were turning round to envy their
table.

The longer that Michael was in the company of Lily and Sylvia, the less
he was able to ask the direct questions that would have been
comparatively easy at the beginning. Sylvia, by the capacity she
displayed of appreciating worldliness without ever appearing worldly
herself, made it impossible for him to risk her contempt by a stupid
question. She was not on the stage; so much he had discovered. She and
Lily had apparently a number of men friends. That fact would have been
disquieting, but that Sylvia talked of them with such a really
tomboyish zest as made it impossible to suppose they represented more
than what they were superficially, the companions of jolly days on the
river and at race-meetings, of jolly evenings at theaters and balls.
Quite definitely Michael was able to assure himself that out of the host
of allusions there was not one which pointed to any man favored above
the rest. He was able to be positive that Lily and Sylvia were
independent. Yet Lily had no private allowance or means. It must be
Sylvia who was helping her. Perhaps Sylvia was always strict, and
perhaps all these friends were by her held at arm's length from Lily, as
he felt himself being held now. Her attitude might have nothing to do
with j