Page:The Awkward Age (New York, Harper and Brothers, 1899).djvu/277

BOOK SIXTH: MRS. BROOK "Yes, at the Museum. We had an orgy in the refreshment-room. But he took me afterwards to Tishy's, where we had another."

"He went in with you?" Mrs. Brook had suddenly flashed into eagerness.

"Oh yes—I made him."

"He didn't want to?"

"On the contrary—very much. But he doesn't do everything he wants," said Nanda.

Mrs. Brook seemed to wonder. "You mean you've also to want it?"

"Oh no—that isn't enough. What I suppose I mean," Nanda continued, "is that he doesn't do anything he doesn't want to. But he does quite enough," she added.

"And who then was at Tishy's?"

"Oh, poor Tish herself, naturally, and Carrie Donner."

"And no one else?"

The girl just waited. "Yes, Mr. Cashmore came in."

Her mother gave a groan of impatience. "Ah, again?"

Nanda thought an instant. "How do you mean, 'again'? He just lives there, as much as he ever did, and Tishy can't prevent him."

"I was thinking of Mr. Longdon—of their meeting. When he met him here that time he liked it so little. Did he like it any more to-day?" Mrs. Brook quavered.

"Oh no, he hated it."

"But hadn't he—if he should go in—known he would?"

"Yes, perfectly—but he wanted to see."

"To see—?" Mrs. Brook just threw out.

"Well, where I go so much. And he knew I wished it."

"I don't quite see why," Mrs. Brook mildly observed. And then as her daughter said nothing to help her: "At any rate he did loathe it?"

Nanda, for a reply, simply after an instant put a question. "Well, how can he understand?" 267