He smiled and nodded.
“I’ve heard it rumoured.”
“Of course. So many of your friends belong to the studio set, don’t they?”
Mannering laughed, and took his cigarette-case from his waistcoat-pocket. Lorna shook her head as he proffered it.
“You keep saying what you’re not feeling,” Mannering said, as he selected a cigarette and poised it in the air. “It seems out of character to me. There are pretty cats and pretty women, each admirable of their species, but when a woman turns cat she seems all claws — from the man’s point of view.”
“Some men’s. Anyhow” — she flushed — “I’m sorry. What were you thinking of in there?”
“You want the truth?”
“It’s not entirely out of fashion — even in our age.”
“I was wondering what your eyes would look like if a lamp was held in front of them, as it was held over the diamonds.”
“Ye-es. You’re capable of thinking like that. What else ?”
“I was wondering what the chances were of breaking into the strong-room,” said Mannering, laughing. He hardly knew what dare-devil spirit prompted the statement; it came almost unbidden.
She stared at him for a moment, and he was puzzled by the expression in her eyes.
Finally her lips curved.
“Ye-es,” she said again; “I believe you’re capable of that too.”
“Of thinking of it?”
“Even doing it.”
Mannering lit his cigarette, glad of the chance to keep his eyes averted. God! She was near the mark! And he was a fool to have mentioned the idea.
“H’m. Well, it’s a good job I can resist that temptation,” he said. “I’m not thinking of trying it yet. And now, with the night still young, what next ?”
“I liked that “yet”,” she said.
“Forget it.”
“I doubt if I ever shall, so be careful. As for the rest of the evening, I’d rather like to dance in a crowd, where there’s no room to move or breathe, the noise negroid, and the band to match. But I think it would be fairer to go back to my studio.”
“You sleep there?”
“The question and answer could be misconstrued,” Lorna said, “but I’ll risk it. Yes, sometimes.”
“Why would it be fair?”
“Fairer, I said. Because I dislike rousing false hopes in fond parents.”
Mannering laughed, and smoke streamed from his lips.
“Frankness can be almost a vice,” he said. “But I rarely wonder what others will think. If I’m amused, I’m satisfied.”
“You think I’ve possibilities, then?”
“I’d like to prove it.”
Lorna laughed, but the mockery was back in her eyes.
“Do you ever think of anything but amusement ?”
“Why, yes. I think so. I study Ruff’s
“That’s an evasion.”
“Naturally,” acknowledged Mannering, chuckling. “Is there time these days to cope with anything but amusement ? It’s a life’s work to watch for every variety.”
“I believe, too, you even work overtime.”
“I wasn’t thinking of musical comediennes.” Mannering smiled. “They’re the novice grades. There are endless other things — and I’ve found them all wanting.”
“It may have been you who were wanting.”
“More than likely, but my education’s not finished. Well, it’s something past ten. How does the Dernier suggest itself?”
“No other dates?”
“Two. One I’ve already missed; the other I’m willing to forget.”
“H’m.” Her eyes held his, with a glimmer of mingled amusement, mockery, and challenge. “Should I trust myself to such a memory ?”
Mannering laughed as he crushed his cigarette into a tray.
