Page:Man's Country (1923).pdf/211

 instant pride had roused every drooping feather of the spirit of the motor magnate.

"Oh, at the office?" he broke in upon himself, with an affected frown of annoyance, as if it was with difficulty that he brought his mind back to plain thoughts of business. "Oh, you know how it is—a big organization like ours, with a big enterprise on hand like the Nemo—trouble of some kind is always sticking up its head somewhere along the line."

It was skillful acting. His tone rather than his words had permitted his wife to discern that this had been a day of fairly heavy responsibilities, a day of business battle with surprise attacks and hard-pressed drives, but that he had casually and powerfully resisted all and remained calmly in possession of the field.

"Come," she invited, leading the way to her own room. "You sit in the alcove there and look out the window and talk to yourself while I take a splash and slip into something cool. I want you near me."

That was in itself a fine and soothing compliment, the effect of which was not entirely dulled even when it appeared that she wanted him near especially so that she could prattle about Sir Brian Hook.

George was by this time willing to concede that Sir Brian must be quite a fellow, but silence came on abruptly without his opinion being so-