In the dining-room one of those silences that Hurstall had described was proceeding.
It was with quite an effort that Mary Aldin turned to Kay and said: 'I asked your friend, Mr. Latimer, to dine to-morrow night!'
'Oh, good,' said Kay.
Nevile said: 'Latimer? Is he down here?'
'He's staying at the Easterhead Bay Hotel,' said Kay.
Nevile said: 'We might go over and dine there one night. How late does the ferry go?'
'Until half-past one,' said Mary. 'I suppose they dance there in the evenings?'
'Most of the people are about a hundred,' said Kay.
'Not very amusing for your friend,' said Nevile to Kay.
Mary said quickly: 'We might go over and bathe one day at Easterhead Bay . It's quite warm still and it's a lovely sandy beach.'
Thomas Royde said in a low voice to Audrey: 'I thought of going out sailing tomorrow. Will you come?'
'I'd like to.'
'We might all go sailing,' said Nevile.
'I thought you said you were going to play golf,' said Kay.
'I did think of going over to the links. I was right off my wooden shots the other day.'
'What a tragedy!' said Kay.
Nevile said good-humouredly: 'Golf's a tragic game.'
Mary asked Kay if she played.
'Yes — after a fashion.'
Nevile said: 'Kay would be very good if she took a little trouble. She's got a natural swing.'
Kay said to Audrey: 'You don't play any games, do you?'
'Not really. I play tennis after a fashion — but I'm a complete rabbit.'
'Do you still play the piano, Audrey?' asked Thomas.
She shook her head.
'Not nowadays.'
'You used to play rather well,' said Nevile.
'I thought you didn't like music, Nevile,' said Kay.
'I don't know much about it,' said Nevile vaguely. 'I always wondered how Audrey managed to stretch an octave, her hands are so small.'
He was looking at them as she laid down her dessert knife and fork.
She flushed a little and said quickly: 'I've got a very long little finger. I expect that helps.'
'You must be selfish, then,' said Kay. 'If you're unselfish you have a short little finger.'
'Is that true?' asked Mary Aldin. 'Then I must be unselfish. Look, my little fingers are quite short.'
'I think you are very unselfish,' said Thomas Royde, eyeing her thoughtfully.
She went red — and continued, quickly: 'Who's the most unselfish of us? Let's compare little fingers. Mine are shorter than yours, Kay. But Thomas, I think, beats me.'
'I beat you both,' said Nevile. 'Look.' He stretched out a hand.
'Only one hand, though,' said Kay. 'Your left-hand little finger is short, but your right-hand one is much longer. And your left hand is what you are born with and the right hand is what you make of your life. So that means that you were born unselfish and have become more selfish as time goes on.'
'Can you tell fortunes, Kay?' asked Mary Aldin. She stretched out her hand, palm upward. 'A fortune-teller told me I should have two husbands and three children. I shall have to hurry up!'
Kay said: 'Those little crosses aren't children, they're journeys. That means you'll take three journeys across water.'
'That seems unlikely, too,' said Mary Aldin.
Thomas Royde asked her: 'Have you travelled much?'
'No, hardly at all.'
He heard an undercurrent of regret in her voice.
'You would like to?'
'Above everything.'
He thought in his slow reflective way of her life. Always in attendance on an old woman. Calm, tactful, an excellent manager. He asked curiously: 'Have you lived with Lady Tressilian long?'
'For nearly fifteen years. I came to be with her after my father died. He had been a helpless invalid for some years before his death.'
And then, answering the question she felt to be in his mind: 'I'm thirty-six. That's what you wanted to know, wasn't it?'
'I did wonder,' he admitted. 'You might be — any age, you see.'
'That's rather a two-edged remark!'
'I suppose it is. I didn't mean it that way.'
That sombre, thoughtful gaze of his did not leave her face. She did not find it embarrassing. It was too free from self-consciousness for that — a genuine, thoughtful interest. Seeing his eyes on her hair, she put up her hand to the one white lock.
'I've had that,' she said, 'since I was very young.'
'I like it,' said Thomas Royde simply.
He went on looking at her. She said at last, in a slightly amused tone of voice: 'Well, what is the verdict?'
He reddened under his tan.
'Oh, I suppose it is rude of me to stare. I was wondering about you — what you are really like.'
'Please,' she said hurriedly and rose from the table. She said as she went into the drawing-room with her arm through Audrey's: 'Old Mr. Treves is coming to dinner to-morrow, too.'
'Who's he?' asked Nevile.
'He brought an introduction from the Rufus Lords. A delightful old gentleman. He's staying at the Balmoral Court . He's got a weak heart and looks very frail, but his faculties are perfect and he has known a lot of interesting people. He was a solicitor or a barrister — I forget which.'
'Everybody down here is terribly old,' said Kay discontentedly.
She was standing just under a tall lamp. Thomas was looking that way, and he gave her that same slow interested attention that he gave to anything that was immediately occupying his line of vision.
He was struck suddenly with her intense and passionate beauty. A beauty of vivid colouring, of abundant and triumphant vitality. He looked across from her to Audrey, pale and moth-like in a silvery grey dress.
He smiled to himself and murmured: 'Rose Red and Snow White.'
'What?' It was Mary Aldin at his elbow.
He repeated the words. 'Like the old fairy story, you know — '
Mary Aldin said: 'It's a very good description — '
V
Mr. Treves sipped his glass of port appreciatively. A very nice wine. A very nice wine. And an excellently cooked and served dinner. Clearly Lady Tressilian had no difficulties with her servants.
The house was well managed, too, in spite of the mistress of it being an invalid.
A pity, perhaps, that the ladies did not leave the dining-room when the port went round. He preferred the old-fashioned routine — But these young people had their own ways.
His eyes rested thoughtfully on that brilliant and beautiful young woman who was the wife of Nevile Strange.
It was Kay's night to-night. Her vivid beauty glowed and shone in the candlelit room. Beside her, Ted Latimer's sleek dark head bent to hers. He was playing up to her. She felt triumphant and sure of herself.
