Page:Man's Country (1923).pdf/249

 "Look here, Fay! What are you so sensitive about Sir Brian for?" demanded her husband, catching her by both arms.

"Don't be absurd!" Fay protested, wriggling free. "I'm not sensitive about him."

"You had to be, to think that emphasis of mine was catty." George's eyes were level, serious, and searching.

Fay herself was for the time being thoughtful and introspective, after which for a brief instant there was a startled look in her blue eyes. Succeeding this, she laughed, confessing: "It does seem strange, doesn't it? And how quickly you took me up on it! That seems peculiar also."

George had to admit that it did. "I guess—I guess that when two people are as close as we've been feeling just now, the mention of a third party somehow—even though we both like 'em a lot—and I'm strong for Sir Brian; just as strong as you are—I guess it makes us both feel a little touchy, what!"

The dinner itself was rendered rather difficult for George Judson because Simon Mumford sat opposite him, and Simon was an unpleasant reminder. He belonged to the banking world. He had been the first financier to tell George his bonds might be prime but his impaired prestige had made them difficult, if not impossible, of negotiation. And as co-executor of the Gilman