Page:The Breath of Scandal (1922).djvu/182

 What your friend Rinderfeld has not mentioned to me, I may imagine from what I knew before of the family. Besides knowing something in general of Mrs. Hale, I saw her once in Field's with her husband; of course I saw their daughter that night at my apartment. I fully understand that Mrs. Hale does not share the disillusionment which has come to her daughter."

No mention of Marjorie by name; twice, indeed, deliberate avoidance of it; Gregg appreciated the tact of that though he said nothing, because she left him, at this moment, nothing to say. She had gazed directly at him while she had been speaking, but now she looked down in attention to drawing off her gloves; as she pulled them out smooth after she had them off and still pulled at them, Gregg watched, not her face, but her hands; for, though she herself was gazing at her hands, she was unconscious of them and of the sensation they betrayed. Long, well-shaped hands, she had, not soft-looking; hands of a determined character, faultlessly clean and well-kept without being over-manicured; hands capable of expressing restraint but just now off guard and warm and pink and pulsating. She could put passion in them and equally in the warmth of her grasp of another's hand or in the almost untouching softness of her caress; for now she ceased to pull at her gloves and, as she laid them on the cloth, she drew her hand away with her finger tips lingering on the soft suede.

Gregg looked up at her suddenly and much better understood her and much more fully comprehended what had happened. He found himself comparing her with the woman she had just mentioned, with the other woman who, at one time, had greatly attracted Charles Hale; and Gregg appreciated what this woman and