But he couldn't bring it up again; and, after all, it
mattered very little. Mrs. Grove was welcome to whatever flattering of
her seductiveness her pride demanded. When he had dispatched, with Mina
Raff, his duty to Claire, succeeded or failed--the latter, he added,
was of course inevitable--he'd return to Eastlake and the Groves would
go out of his life.
The curtain of what he had thought of as a play, an interlude, would
fall heavily, conclusively, and the music end.
* * * * *
At the St. Regis he chose the more informal dining-room with panellings
and high columns of wood, and medallions in white marble. It was
neither full nor empty, and they were conducted to a table set for two.
Lee was conscious of heads turning, and of a faint running whisper--
Mina Raff had been recognized. However, without any exhibited
consciousness of this, she addressed herself to him with a pretty
exclusion; and, pausing to explain her indifference to food, she left
the selection of everything but the salad to Lee; she had, she
admitted, a preference for alligator pears cut into small cubes with a
French dressing. That disposed of, he turned to her:
"I noticed, at the Plaza, that you are hard at it."
"Indeed, yes," she replied; "but we are still only rehearsing; not a
scene has been shot. You see, that makes it all so expensive; I want to
do as well as possible for the men who have money and confidence in
me.
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