Page:Firecrackers a realistic novel.pdf/132

 It petrifies them. And Paul, I hope you won't mind. . . but I bought this ring today. She exhibited an emerald, cut en cabochon, the size of a wren's egg.

Vera dear, why should I mind? So long as Mr. Whittaker's gold, won in the sweat and turmoil of the pit, holds out, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't buy anything you like.

O, but Paul, I haven't told you everything. I explain that you gave it to me!

After dinner they sat in the spacious drawing-room with its guilloches carved by Grinling Gibbons, which had been purchased by the late Mr. Whittaker from an impecunious English peer, with its massive Dutch marquetry cabinets, on which were ranged pots of splendid flowering plants, created by patient Chinese artists out of jade, alabaster, jacinth, sardonyx, beryl, agate, crystal, and cornelian. In needle-point arm-chairs husband and wife faced each other in front of the fire. Silence had fallen between them. Vera yawned occasionally; Paul, frequently.

I'm going out, Paul announced a little later.

On this awful night! Vera reproached him. It's damp and chilly and there's a nasty drizzle. I'm so afraid you'll catch cold. Where are you going? she questioned him suspiciously.

To see Gunnar.

That acrobat! I don't want to seem fussy about