Page:The Breath of Scandal (1922).djvu/233

 Charles Hale and his daughter went with his wife to see her off on the Twentieth Century Limited for New York. He was strong and apparently quite well then; she spoke about his good appearance several times and, after he had put her in her compartment and she had exacted his last promise to take good care of himself and they had kissed and parted, she proudly watched him out the window as he stood waving good-by. Looking back, she carried with her the image of him as he stood there waving at her; and when she imagined him otherwise, she renewed her image of him engrossed in business during the day and at recreation at his golf club or at the homes of their friends,—comforting images of a man in the years of his greatest vigor and success, content with such thoughts of her as she held of him, and neither seeking nor desiring close companionship. "I'll send him that new Ring Lardner book," she thought indulgently. And she imagined him at home in the evenings reading it and the newspapers into which he always delved amazingly; she imagined him having Marjorie play the piano for him or running off his favorite records. For Marjorie, in spite of that receipt for advanced rent from J. A. Cordeen, had remained at home that week; and her mother, of course, had not the slightest idea of her intention.

Nor had her father any suspicion of it even upon this afternoon when he parted from her at the station to go to his office. Since yesterday he had resumed his management of Tri-Lake Products affairs; and, rather as a result of his return, the directors were meeting to elect a new president in the place of Dorsett, who was personally to place his resignation before them.

E. H. Stanway, vice president and a director, was in the directors' room, and Charles Hale, general man-