Trudy lost no time in introducing the magic vanishing-cream and liquid face power, and before the call ended Beatrice had ordered five dollars' worth of each and some for Aunt Belle, and she had offered to take Trudy to her bridge club some time soon.
As the door closed Trudy sank back in her chair, informing the imitation fireplace joyously: "It was almost too easy; I didn't have to work as hard as I really wanted to." Wearily she dragged off her tea gown for a bungalow apron and then prepared a supper of delicatessen baked beans and instantaneous pudding for her lord and master.
The dinner with the O'Valleys was equally fruitful of results. Despite Steve's protests that he did not wish to know Gay and that Trudy was impossible he was forced to listen to their inane jokes and absurd flatteries and to look at Trudy in her taupe chiffon with exclamatory strands of burnt ostrich, and watch her deft fashion of handling his wife, realizing that people with one-cylinder brains and smart-looking, redheaded wives usually get by with things!
After their guests had departed Steve began brusquely: "Do you like'em?"
"No; I told you before that they amused me. She is fun, and poor Gay is a dear."
"Are you going to have them round all the time? That woman's laugh gets on my nerves, and I want him shot at sunrise. They can't talk about anything but the movies and jazz dancing and clothes."
"What do you want them to talk about? Don't pace up and down like a wild beast." Beatrice came up and stood before him to prevent his turning the corner.
He looked down at her without answering. She was clad in shimmering white loveliness cut along the same medieval lines as the gown another Beatrice had worn when Dante first saw her walking by the Arno; her hair was very sunshiny and fragrant and her dove-coloured eyes most appealing.
He burst out laughing at his own protest. "Am I a bear? Come and kiss me. If you like them or they amuse you just tote 'em about, darling. Only can't you manage to do it while I am out of town? They do fleck me on the raw."
"Hermit--beast," she dimpled and shook her finger at him.
"I just want you," he said, simply; "or else people who can do something besides spend money or sponge round for it."