use and his
manners could be as good and as bad as their own. Moreover, he was
probably more strongly endowed in other ways than the youngest of them.
The wise thing for him to do was to let her find it out the next time
they were alone.

XXIII

But it was some time before he saw her alone again, and meanwhile many
things happened.

She took Mr. Dinwiddie home in her car for supper, Clavering following
with Osborne in a taxi, and as the abundant repast was spread in the
dining-room it was patent that she had gone to the opera with the
intention of bringing back willing guests. She knew that both
Dinwiddie and Osborne subscribed to the omnibus box, and no doubt if
they had failed to put in an appearance she would have dropped--with
one of her infernally ready excuses--himself at his own door. She
might as well have announced, without bothering to feed these damned
old bores, that she did not intend to see him alone again until she had
made up her royal mind.

He ground his teeth, but he was master of himself again and had no
intention to make the mistake of sulking. The situation put him on his
mettle. He led the conversation and did practically all the talking:
as if the vital youth in him, stimulated by music and champagne (which
the older men were forced to imbibe sparingly), must needs pour forth
irresistibly--and impersonally. He was not jealous of Dinwiddie or
Osborne (although the black frown on the latter's brow was sufficient
evidence of a deeply personal resentment), and although he did not
flash Madame Zattiany a meaning glance, might indeed have sat at her
board for the first time, he knew that he had never made a better
impression. Her eyes, which had been heavy and troubled as they took
their seats at the table, and as old as eyes could be in that perfect
setting, began to look like a gray landscape illumined by distant
flashes of lightning. Before long they were full of life, and
response, and laughter. And pride? There was something very like
pride in those expressive orbs (not always as subject to her will as
she fancied), as they dwelt on the brilliant young journalist whose
mind darted hither and thither on every subject he could summon that
would afford the opportunity of witty comment. He even quoted
himself--skipping the past two months--and what had been evolved with
much deliberation and rewriting sounded spontaneous and pertinent. But
in truth he was so genuinely stimulate