suburban practice, out all night, that tumble-down old house and two
old people hung around your necks, for Doctor David is letting go pretty
fast. It just won't do. Besides, there's a story going the rounds about
him, that--"
"I don't want to hear it, if you don't mind."
She went to the door and opened it.
"I've hardly spoken a dozen words to him in my life. But just remember
this. When I do find the man I want to marry, I shall make up my own
mind. As you did," she added as a parting shot.
She was rather sorry as she went down the stairs. She had begun to
suspect what the family had never guessed, that Nina was not very happy.
More and more she saw in Nina's passion for clothes and gaiety, for
small possessions, an attempt to substitute them for real things. She
even suspected that sometimes Nina was a little lonely.
Wallie Sayre rose from a deep chair as she entered the living-room.
"Hello," he said, "I was on the point of asking Central to give me this
number so I could get you on the upstairs telephone."
"Nina and I were talking. I'm sorry."
Wallie, in spite of Walter Wheeler's opinion of him, was an engaging
youth with a wide smile, an air of careless well-being, and an obstinate
jaw. What he wanted he went after and generally secured, and Elizabeth,
enlightened by Nina, began to have a small anxious feeling that
afternoon that what he wanted just now happened to be herself.
"Nina coming down?" he asked.
"I suppose so. Why?"
"You couldn't pass the word along that you are going to be engaged for
the next half hour?"
"I might, but I certainly don't intend to."
"You are as hard to isolate as a--as a germ," he complained. "I gave
up a perfectly good golf game to see you, and as your father generally
calls the dog the moment I appear and goes for a walk, I thought I might
see you alone."
"You're seeing me alone now, you know."
Suddenly he leaned over and catching up her hand, kissed it.
"You're so cool and sweet," he said. "I--I wish you liked me a little."
He smiled up at her, rather wistfully. "I never knew any one quite like
you."
She drew her hand away. Something Nina had said, that he knew his way
about, came into her mind, and made her uncomfortable. Back of him,
suddenly, was that strange and mysterious region where men of his sort

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