"If I were twenty years younger!" said Mr. Wade to himself, which was a little more than half the number he should have stated, but what elderly gentleman is exactly accurate in such statements!
He looked sharply at Hastings, and something in the divided attention his nephew was giving John Carrington seemed to please him.
There was a flutter of Hemmy's apron in the doorway.
"Ned will join us in the dining room," said John Carrington, genially.
Ned was, in fact, standing on its threshold.
He greeted them with gay good fellowship.
"I'm glad to see you looking so well after yesterday," Mr. Wade assured him.
Ned flashed a frank, bright smile at him.
"I'm as fresh as though yesterday had never happened," he said, gayly, "and we're going to keep conversation on pleasanter things through luncheon, on Elenore's account."
Mr. Wade nodded. "Of course," he said, "we must not alarm the young lady with what might have been."
And the chatter that ensued was, in truth, gay and bright and full of reminiscences of the life the three young people had enjoyed in Paris.
If Mr. Wade had ever tasted better fried chicken, he had forgotten where, and he praised it with an emphasis that turned Mrs. Kipley, who was helping Hemmy wait on table, a deep magenta with suppressed pride.
He approved highly, too, of the champagne cup, and when Elenore confessed its concoction, declared gallantly that that explained its excellence.
"Indeed, I imagine that you succeed in whatever you do," he added, as the string to his floral bouquet.
They were at the coffee-and-cordial stage of proceedings now, and Mrs. Kipley and Hemmy had disappeared on their laurels.
"She does, Mr. Wade," said Ned, gayly, "and she attempts appallingly difficult things at that. Would you like to hear about her star performance?"
"I would, indeed," said Mr. Wade, heartily.
And Elenore, with a look at her brother, knew that the moment had come.
"Then I shall leave you to your cigars," she said, lightly, pushing back her chair, in the instinct to escape.
For back of the lightness, excitement, altogether too insecurely barred, was making a dash for liberty.
But Ned was on his feet as well, and caught her firmly but lightly around the waist as she tried to pass him.