His heart leapt, for didn't he hate her?

XXIX

Lambert appeared in the doorway.

"Blodgett's rung for tea----"

He glanced curiously from one to the other. The broken shadows disclosed
little, but the fact that she had lingered at all was arresting.

"What's up, Sylvia?"

She went close to her brother.

"This--this old servant has been impertinent again."

Lambert smiled.

"He's rather more than that now, sis. That's over--forgotten. Still if
the Princeton fellow Morton's been impertinent----"

He spread his arms, smiling.

"Have I got to submit myself to a trouncing more than once a year?"

Sylvia shrugged her shoulders.

"No," she said, impatiently. "You say it's forgotten. All right."

George knew it would never be forgotten now by either of them. Lambert's
unruffled attitude made him uneasy. Her brother's scoffing response to
her accusation suggested that Lambert saw, since they would be more or
less thrown together, a beneficial side to such encounters as the one
just ended. For George didn't dream that Lambert had forgotten, either,
those old boasts.

Another depressing thought made him bad company for Blodgett after the
callers had driven away. It came from a survey, following his glimpse of
Sylvia's beauty, of all the blatant magnificence with which Blodgett had
surrounded himself. Blodgett after dinner, a little flushed with wine,
and the triumph of having had in his house on the same day two Sinclairs
and two Planters, attempted an explanation.

"I didn't build this, Morton, or my place in town, just for Josiah
Blodgett."

George wasn't in a mood for subtleties of expression.

"I've often wondered why you haven't married. With your money you ought
to have a big choice."

Blodgett sipped a liqueur. He smiled in a self-satisfied way.

"Money will buy about anything--even the kind of a wife you want. I'm in
no hurry. When I marry, young man, it will be the right kind."

And George understood that he meant by the right kind some popular and
well-bred girl who would make the Blodgett family hit a social average.

He carried that terrifying thought of marriage back to Princeton. He had
no fear Sylvia would ever look seriously in Blodgett's direction. Money
could scarcely bribe her. This, however, was her second season. Of
course she would marry someone of her own immediate circle. She could
take her choice. When that happened what would become of his
determination and his boasts? Fre