He ate
steadily through the dinner, and seemed rather to resent Doris's
attempts to distract him from the task. So that presently Doris found
herself reduced to long tracts of silence, when her fan was her only
companion, and the watching of other people her only amusement.
Lord and Lady Dunstable faced each other at the sides of the table,
which was purposely narrow, so that talk could pass across it. Lady
Dunstable sat between an Ambassador and a Cabinet Minister, but Meadows
was almost directly opposite to her, and it seemed to be her chief
business to make him the hero of the occasion. It was she who drew him
into political or literary discussion with the Cabinet Minister, so that
the neighbours of each stayed their own talk to listen; she who would
insist on his repeating "that story you told me at Crosby Ledgers;" who
attacked him abruptly--rudely even, as she had done in the country--so
that he might defend himself; and when he had slipped into all her traps
one after the other, would fall back in her chair with a little
satisfied smile.
Pages:
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64