"So stupid of them to have overlooked you," she said; "and I should have
thought Gladys would have remembered--unless--"
His close-set eyes focussed so near her own that she stopped,
involuntarily occupied with the unusual phenomenon.
"Unless what?" he asked.
She was all laughing polished surface again. "Unless Gladys's
intellect, which has only room for one idea at a time, is already fully
occupied."
"With what?" he demanded.
"Oh, with that Gerald boy "--she shrugged indulgently--"perhaps with her
pretty American Grace and the outlook for the Insular invasion."
Neergard's apple face was dull and mottled, and on the thin bridge of
his nose the sweat glistened. He did not know what she meant; and she
knew he did not.
As he turned to go she paced him a step or two across the rose-and-gold
reception-room, hands linked behind her back, bending forward slightly
as she moved beside him.
"Gerald, poor lad, is to be disciplined," she observed. "The prettiest
of American duchesses takes her over next spring; and Heaven knows the
household cavalry needs green forage .
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