hideous clatter of the
traffic. And she speculated on the appearance of Mrs. Thompson with
all the hairs in her eyebrows that nature meant them to have. And then
she thought upon Claybrook's boyishness in wanting her to help him go
pick out a new toy. He was without guile, entirely without guile.
Suddenly she laughed aloud and then she switched off the light and
went smiling to bed.

CHAPTER XVI

They met at the Marlowe garage. When Mary Louise saw Claybrook and Joe
Hooper standing together in absorbed conversation, leaning each with
one foot propped on the running board of a big shiny new car in the
display room, she suddenly knew she had no business there. She saw
them through the big plate-glass window as she came along. It would be
hard to make her arrival seem casual. And when Joe Hooper raised his
head as she entered the doorway--he was wearing that gaudy suit--she
was confused.

But he did not seem to notice and greeted her cordially. He was
looking a bit thin, with a high colour and a restless snap in his
eyes. There was an alertness about him that was new to her and a
something in his manner that was quite different. She stole a look at
him while he and Claybrook were discussing lubrication and wondered in
what way he had changed. A sureness? A steadiness? A bit of reserve
that sat well upon him? All of these, surely. She had never seen him
show to better advantage. Once he turned to her and asked her opinion
about the leather. There was an air of quiet deference in the way he
put the question. It was a trivial question and she was thinking of
the impersonal note in his tone, just as though she might have been a
total stranger to whom he owed courtesy, and she was wishing he had
asked her something about herself. Her uneasiness about the
unconventionality of her being there vanished, so completely were the
two men absorbed in technical discussion. She noted the contrast:
Claybrook rather beefy and a bit too red of face; Joe, on the other
hand, quite slim and taut. His new clothes fitted him better; he had
lost that raw-boned look.

Joe asked her if she would not like to go for a ride.

She looked up into his eyes from the chair which he had got for her
and felt a childish pleasure, just as though he had shown her a
personal attention.

"I'd love to," she said.

They waited at the curb for the demonstrating car to be brought around
and she had a chance to ask him how things were at home.

"I