Page:The Plutocrat (1927).pdf/509

 space of polished floor used for dancing. The dancers and the tea-drinkers had all departed except one; for the dinner-hour now approached, and even the one person who lingered had long since done with tea. In fact, after lingering to supplement the more innocuous beverage with a tiny glass of white cordial, she was in the act of drawing on a doffed glove as she frowningly preparing to depart. She was a tall lady in cloth of gold and brown velvet of Venice, and of an aspect so superb that she might have been thought Olympian rather than Parisian.

As the newly arrived travellers passed through the hallway she turned toward the open double doors; then, when they had gone by, she slowly drew off the glove she had partially replaced upon her right hand, and leaned back again in her comfortable chair.

Mrs. Tinker waited at the elevator for her husband to enter it before her. "What's the matter?" she said querulously. "What are you hanging back for? Never mind! Get in! Get in before I do; certainly!" And after he had meekly complied and the elevator was in motion, "What are you so red in the face for?" she inquired tartly. "What are you"