Page:Middle Aged Love Stories (IA middleagedlove00bacorich).djvu/97



But Annabel and her fellow-waitress had disappeared. Miss Gould sat in silence. At intervals her perplexed gaze rested unconsciously on the Botticelli Venus, from which she instantly with a slight frown lowered it and regarded the floor. When she at last met his eyes the expression of her own was so troubled, the droop of her firm mouth so pathetic and unusual, that he left his chair and dragged the little stool to her feet, assuming an attitude so boyish and graceful that in spite of herself she smiled at him.

“What is the matter?” he asked confidentially. “Is anything wrong? Don’t you like the room? I enjoy it tremendously, myself. I’ve been here almost all the time since it was done. I think Tom Waters must be tremendously impressed—”

“That’s the trouble; he is,” said Miss Gould simply.

“Trouble? trouble? Is his impression