"’Madame,’ he exclaimed, as if I had stabbed him to the heart, ’the Blessed Virgin is my mother.’ You really would have thought I had insulted his own mother. They have such queer ideas, these foreigners. My, but he was mad! Then, what do you think? The next day I passed him walking up from the lake and he came over with such apologies! He prayed I would overlook his anger--he professed to have been so shocked that he had forgotten himself--no doubt he was afraid he would lose his job."
"George, you look sleepy," Lottie Nelson complained, looking at Doane. "You need something to wake you up. Suppose we adjourn to the dining-room?"
Imogene returned to the piano. Kimberly walked to the door of the dining-room with the others. "I will go upstairs," he said to Lottie Nelson.
"Don’t stay all night," she returned peremptorily. "And come have something before you go up."
Fritzie caught his arm, and walked with him into the hall. They talked for a moment. "You must meet her," declared Fritzie at length, "she is perfectly lovely and will be over after a while with Dolly." Then she looked at him suddenly: "I declare, I don’t believe you’ve heard a word of what I’ve been saying."
"I’m afraid not, Fritzie, but no matter, listen to what I say. Don’t go in there and drink with that bunch."
Fritzie put up her hand: "Now don’t scold."
Upstairs, Nelson and Charles Kimberly, facing each other, were seated at a big table on which lay a number of type-written sheets, beautifully clear and distinct. These they were examining.
"What are you going over?" asked Robert, taking the chair Nelson drew up for him.
Charles Kimberly with one hand in his pocket, and supporting his head with the other as his elbow rested on the table, turned to Robert with a question.
"You’ve seen the MacBirney figures. What do you think of them?"
"Do you really need the MacBirney plants to control the Western market?" asked Charles Kimberly. With eyes half closed behind his glasses he studied his brother’s face, quite as occupied with his thoughts as with his words.
Robert did not answer at once. "I should hate to say so, personally," he remarked at length.
"McCrea," continued Charles, "contends that we do need them to forestall competition. That is, he thinks with the MacBirney crowd out of the field we can have peace for ten years out there."