Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/176

 strangers to each other. Dimly he realized that the mood would pass, but now it held him utterly, and it was with a sense of relief that he excused himself with a muttered word about cigars and entered the hall.

Waiting there at the entrance, she was in sight of a dozen tables, and aware of the curious looks fixed upon her; aware too of the whispered comments, and uncomfortably conscious of her plain dark gown and unfashionable cloak. She wanted to get out of sight, yet hardly liked to pass outside alone. In her embarrassment she dropped the little silver mesh purse she was carrying. Three attendants leaped for it eagerly. She accepted it from one of them with a smile, and the incident seemed to restore her poise. She stared back at the starers with careless, well-bred indifference; she had watched them too much not to have learned their tricks.

"You are laughing at me to yourselves," she thought, "you with your jewels and laces and paradise plumes. But I could have all that you have, and more, if I but paid the price that many of you are paying."