"What did you think of my nice Daggett boy?" Claire demanded of Eva
Gilson, the moment bruncheon was over.
"Which one was---- Oh, the boy you met on the road? Why, really, I
didn't notice him particularly. I'd rather fancied from the way you
referred to him that he was awfully jolly and forceful, but rather
crude. But I didn't notice him at all. He seemed perfectly well-bred,
but slightly heavy."
"No, he isn't that---- He---- Why did you lead spades?" reflected
Claire.
They were in the drawing-room, resting after the tact and tumult of the
bruncheon. Claire had been here long enough now for the Gilsons to
forget her comfortably, and be affectionate and quarrelsome and natural,
and to admit by their worrying that even in their exalted social
position there were things to fuss about.
"I do think we ought to have invited Belle Torrens," fretted Mrs.
Gilson. "We've simply got to have her here soon."
Mr. Gilson speculated intensely, "But she's the dullest soul on earth,
and her husband spends all his spare time in trying to think up ways of
doing me dirt in business. Oh, by the way, did you get the water tap in
the blue room fixed? It's dripping all the time."
"No, I forgot it."
"Well, I do wish you'd have it attended to. It simply drips all the
time."
"I know. I intended to 'phone the plumber---- Can't you 'phone him
tomorrow, from the office?"
"No, I haven't time to bother with it. But I do wish you would. It keeps
on dripping----"
"I know, it doesn't seem to stop. Well, you remind me of it in the
morning."
"I'm afraid I'll forget. You better make a note of it. If it keeps on
dripping that way, it's likely to injure something. And I do wish you'd
tell the Jap not to put so much parsley in the omelet. And I say, how
would an omelet be with a butter sauce over it?"
"Oh, no, I don't think so. An omelet ought to be nice and dry. Butter
makes it so greasy--besides, with the price of butter----"
"But there's a richness to butter---- You'd better make a note about the
tap dripping in the blue room right now, before you forget it. Oh! Why
in heaven's name did we have Johnny Martin here? He's dull as
ditchwater----"
"I know, but---- It is nice to go out to his place on the Point. Oh,
Gene, I do wish you'd try and remember not to talk about your business
so much. You and Mr. Martin were talking about the price of lumber for
at least half an hour----"
"Nothing of the kind. We scarcely mentioned it. Oh! What car are you
going to use this afternoon? If we get out to the Barnetts', I thought
we might use the limousine---- Or no, you'll probably go out before I
do, I have to read over some specifications, and I promised to give Will
a lift, couldn't you take the Loco, maybe you might drive yourself, no,
I forgot, the clutch is slipping a little, well, you might drive out and
send the car back for me--still, there wouldn't hardly be time----"