Page:Son of the wind.djvu/167

RV 153 him, and this afternoon she had expressed the greatest indifference in her mention of the fellow's name.

But, later, at dinner, she appeared illuminated, talked animatedly, ate little, and evidently had her mind fixed on certain arrangements of which she spoke to her mother in lowered voice. Immediately afterward she began her flittings in and out of the living-room, skirmished with the furniture there, arranging curtains, or smoothing out of rugs—the behavior of any woman with a "party" on her hands, serious and intense as if a few people coming to sit on chairs was an event of the universe.

In this bustle, which did not include him, Carron wandered rather forlorn, catching now and then a glimpse of Blanche or Mrs. Rader, more often getting fragments of murmured discussions. "Why don't you have the lamp, as you always do?" Or "You always used the center-table before!" Then in a note of exasperation, "My dear Blanche, on a night like this, what do you want of a fire!"

"It looks so pretty, and we can have the windows. open if it is too hot."

The girl's voice had answered, from aloft, on the little stair which she was ascending, probably on her way to dress, and Mrs. Rader's had called from within the living-room. Entering he found her there alone. It was the room Blanche had been sweeping