'Sybil told me. He invited her. I refused to allow her to accept the
invitation.'
'And what did Sybil say?'
'She was naturally a little disappointed, of course, but she did as I
requested.'
'I wonder she didn't pack her things and go straight off.'
'My dear Ruth!'
'That is what I should have done.'
'You don't know what you are saying.'
'Oh? Do you think I should let Kirk dictate to me like that?'
'He is certain to disapprove of your going when he hears of the
invitation. What will you do?'
Ruth's eyes opened. For a moment she looked almost ugly.
'What shall I do? Why, go, of course.'
She clenched her teeth. A woman's mind can work curiously, and she was
associating Kirk with Bailey in what she considered an unwarrantable
intrusion into her private affairs. It was as if Kirk, and not Bailey,
were standing there, demanding that she should not associate with Basil
Milbank.
'I shall make it my business,' said Bailey, 'to warn Kirk that this man
is not a desirable companion for you.'
The discussion of this miserable yacht affair had brought back to
Bailey all the jealousy which he had felt when Sybil had first told him
of it. All the vague stories he had ever heard about Basil were surging
in his mind like waves of some corrosive acid. He had become a leading
member of the extreme wing of the anti-Milbank party. He regarded Basil
with the aversion which a dignified pigeon might feel for a circling
hawk; and he was now looking on this yacht party as a deadly peril from
which Ruth must be saved at any cost.
'I shall speak to him very strongly,' he added.
Ruth's suppressed anger blazed up in the sudden way which before now
had disconcerted her brother.
'Bailey, what do you mean by coming here and saying this sort of thing?
You're becoming a perfect old woman. You spend your whole time prying
into other people's affairs. I'm sorry for Sybil.'
Bailey cast one reproachable look at her and left the room with pained
dignity. Something seemed to tell him that no good could come to him
from a prolongation of the interview. Ruth, in this mood, always had
been too much for him, and always would be. Well, he had done his duty
as far as he was concerned. It now remained to do the same by Kirk.
He hailed a taxi and drove to the studio.
Kirk was busy and not anxious for conversation, least of all with
Bailey. He had not forgotten their last tete-a-tete.
Bailey, however, was regarding him with a feeling almost of
friendliness. They were bound together by a common grievance against
Basil Milbank.
'I came here, Winfield,' he said, after a few moments of awkward
conversation on neutral topics, 'because I understand that this man
Milbank has invited Ruth to join his yacht party.'
