That it would begin at once was
evident. "William is always a little annoyed by my contradictory
character," she observed, gazing down at her slippers. They were grey,
slight like a glove, on slight arched feet that held his attention. The
conversation about the situation before them, expanded to its farthest
limits, inevitably dragged; they said the same things, in hardly varied
words, a third and even a fourth time; and then Lee's interest in it
wholly deserted him--he could excite himself about Mina no longer.
This left him confronted with himself and Mrs. Grove. A clock on the
stairway struck ten. Her face hadn't a vestige of cordiality, and he
wondered if she were fatigued, merely polite in remaining in the room
with him? She needn't inconvenience herself on his account! It was
pleasant enough at the Groves'; without doubt--in her own world--she
was a woman of consequence, but he wasn't carried away by the privilege
of studying her indifferent silences. Then she completely surprised
him:
"I suppose you have been to all the caf?s and revues you ever want to
see; but I almost never get to them; and it occurred to me that, if you
didn't too much mind, we might go. What do you think--is it utterly
foolish?"
On the contrary, he assured her, it would amuse him immensely. Lee
Randon said this so convincingly that she rose at once. To be with Mrs.
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