Joining the party when it came down, he found it difficult only in the
inner sanctuaries to maintain the _status quo ante_ Gryson. There was no
shadow of suspicion or coolness in his father's kindly smile and genial
greeting, and Mrs. Honoria rallied him playfully upon the narrow margin
by which he had held his own and Patricia's places at the Gordon
dinner-table the night before. Only in Patricia's eyes he read a curious
questioning, a hint that they were finding something in his eyes which
was new and not wholly understandable. He knew well enough what it was
that she saw; and though she was sitting opposite him at the table for
four, he looked at her as seldom as possible, devoting himself, for once
in a way, resolutely to his father's wife.
After luncheon he again fell back upon the dogged boldness. Unable to
contemplate a second plunge into the solitude of the Temple Court
offices, he asked and was accorded permission to take Patricia for a
country drive in the little car. When the city was left behind, and the
small machine was purring steadily northwestward over a road which led
to nowhere in particular, Blount put his finger accurately upon the
thing which had been building little barriers of silence between them
all the way out from town.
"You knew me well enough yesterday to be reasonably certain of what I
would do in given circumstances, didn't you, Patricia?" he began
abruptly.
Pages:
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301