Page 108 (1/1)
He lay there pondering severalthe sad but necessary infor was certain: there was not now tih before the house-party dissolved to mould Plank into acquiescent obedience That must be finished in town--unless Plank invited him to stay at the Fells after his time was up at Shotover By Heaven! That was the idea! And there'd be a chance for him at cards! … Only, of course, Plank would ask Leila too … But what did he care! He was no longer afraid of her; he'd soon be independent of her and her pittance Let her go to the courts for her divorce! Let her-He sat up rather suddenly, perplexed with a new idea which, curiously enough, had not appealed to hi hint so coolly dropped by his wife concerning her fearlessness of divorce proceedings had only awakened him to the consciousness of his own vulnerability and carelessness of conduct
Now it occurred to him, for the first time, that if it were not awith the question of divorcehis elimination in view of this ulterior object? Was there an ulterior gentleman somewhere prepared to replace him? If so, where? And who?
His wife's possible indiscretions had never interested hi as appearances were maintained And she had preserved appearances with a skill which required all the indifferent and easy charity of their set to pretend coave her credit for that; she had been clever Nobody outside of the social register knew the true state of affairs in the house of Leroy Mortimer--which, after all, was all anybody cared about
And so, immersed in the details of his dirty little draentle hi much better--and presently descended the stairs to find everybody absent, engaged, as a servant explained, in a ga pool So he strolled off toward the north wing of the house, which had been built for the squash-courts and swiyh the pal in the pool, cries and stifled laughter, and the quick rattle of applause froe boys and Rena and Eileen on one side were playing the last e, Siward, and Ferrall on the other; the big, slippery, glistening ball was flying about through storot it away; then Ferrall secured it and dived toward the red goal; but Rena Bonnesdel caught hi both ar shout and hurled it back at Siward, who shot forward like an arrow, his opponents gathering about hiallery, where Grace Ferrall and Captain Voucher ildly offering odds on the blue, and Alderdene and Major Belwether were thriftily booking them