The Custom of the Country Read Online Free PDF Page B

seemed not to have heard. On the theatre they were equally at odds, for while Undine had seen
Oolaloo
fourteen times, and was ‘wild’ about Ned Norris in
The Soda-Water Fountain
, she had not heard of the famous Berlin comedians who were performing Shakespeare at the German Theatre, and knew only by name the clever American actress who was trying to give ‘repertory’ plays with a good stock company. The conversation was revived for a moment by her recalling that she had seen Sarah Burnhard in a play she called
Leg-long
, and another which she pronounced
Fade
; but even this did not carry them far, as she had forgotten what both plays were about and had found the actress a good deal older than she expected.
    Matters were not improved by the return of the men fromthe smoking-room. Henley Fairford replaced his wife at Undine’s side; and since it was unheard-of at Apex for a married man to force his society on a young girl, she inferred that the others didn’t care to talk to her, and that her host and hostess were in league to take her off their hands. This discovery resulted in her holding her vivid head very high, and answering ‘I couldn’t really say,’ or ‘Is that so?’ to all Mr Fairford’s ventures; and as these were neither numerous nor striking it was a relief to both when the rising of the elderly lady gave the signal for departure.
    In the hall, where young Marvell had managed to precede her, Undine found Mrs Van Degen putting on her cloak. As she gathered it about her she laid her hand on Marvell’s arm.
    ‘Ralphie, dear, you’ll come to the opera with me on Friday? We’ll dine together first – Peter’s got a club dinner.’ They exchanged what seemed a smile of intelligence, and Undine heard the young man accept. Then Mrs Van Degen turned to her.
    ‘Good-bye, Miss Spragg. I hope you’ll come –’
    ‘
– to dine with me too?
’ That must be what she was going to say, and Undine’s heart gave a bound.
    ‘– to see me some afternoon,’ Mrs Van Degen ended, going down the steps to her motor, at the door of which a much-furred footman waited with more furs on his arm.
    Undine’s face burned as she turned to receive her cloak. When she had drawn it on with haughty deliberation she found Marvell at her side, in hat and overcoat, and her heart gave a higher bound. He was going to ‘escort’ her home, of course! This brilliant youth – she felt now that he
was
brilliant – who dined alone with married women, whom the ‘Van Degen set’ called ‘Ralphie, dear’, had really no eyes for any one but herself; and at the thought her lost self-complacency flowed back warm through her veins.
    The street was coated with ice, and she had a delicious moment descending the steps on Marvell’s arm, and holding it fast while they waited for her cab to come up; but when hehad helped her in he closed the door and held his hand out over the lowered window.
    ‘Good-bye,’ he said, smiling; and she could not help the break of pride in her voice, as she faltered out stupidly, from the depths of her disillusionment: ‘Oh – good-bye.’

IV
    ‘F ATHER , you’ve got to take a box for me at the opera next Friday.’ From the tone of her voice Undine’s parents knew at once that she was ‘nervous’.
    They had counted a great deal on the Fairford dinner as a means of tranquillization, and it was a blow to detect signs of the opposite result when, late the next morning, their daughter came dawdling into the sodden splendour of the Stentorian breakfast-room.
    The symptoms of Undine’s nervousness were unmistakable to Mr and Mrs Spragg. They could read the approaching storm in the darkening of her eyes from limpid grey to slate-colour, and in the way her straight black brows met above them and the red curves of her lips narrowed to a parallel line below.
    Mr Spragg, having finished the last course of his heterogeneous meal, was adjusting his gold eye-glasses for a glance at the paper when Undine