" He told her briefly that, unexpectedly, more
had turned up. "What did you do the first night?" she persisted.
"I dragged a cash girl into an opium place on Pell Street."
"That's not too funny to be borne," she returned; "and it doesn't
altogether answer my question."
"We went to Malmaison."
"We?" she mimicked his earlier query.
"Oh, the Groves. I like them very much, Fanny--" To her interruption
that that was evident he paid no attention. "He is an extremely nice
man, a little too conscious of his pedestal, but solid and cordial.
Mrs. Grove is more unusual; I should say she was a difficult woman to
describe. She dresses beautifully, Paris and the rest of it; but she
isn't a particle good-looking. Not a bit! It's her color, I think. She
hasn't any. Women would fancy her more than men; no one could call her
pleasant."
"You haven't asked about the children." She had apparently heard
nothing of what had gone before.
"Of course they are all right or you'd have told me."
"Lee, you astonish me, you really do; at times I think you forget you
have a family. We'll all be dead before you know it. I'm sorry, but you
will have to get into the habit of staying home at least one night a
week. I attend to all I can manage about the place, but there are some
things you must settle. The trouble is I haven't demanded enough from
you."
"That's silly," he responded, almost falling into his discarded
irritation; "I practically never go out without you.
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