"How absurd!" she said.
"It is rather absurd. I'm so absolutely useless. It's only
because of the relationship that Mr. Craig is doing this."
She said uneasily: "You are not really serious, are you?"
"Grimly serious."
"About a--a desk and a salary--in my brother-in-law's office?"
"Unless you'll hire me as a useful man. Otherwise, I hope for a
big desk and a small salary. I went to Mr. Craig this morning, and
the minute I saw him I knew he was fine enough to be your
brother-in-law. And I said, 'I am Philip Ormond Berkley; how do
you do!' And he said, 'How do you do!' And I said, 'I'm a
relation,' and he said, 'I believe so.' And I said, 'I was
educated at Harvard and in Leipsic; I am full of useless
accomplishments, harmless erudition, and insolvent amiability, and
I am otherwise perfectly worthless. Can you give me a position?'"
"And he said: 'What else is the matter?' And I said, 'The stock
market.' And that is how it remains, I am to call on him
to-morrow."
She said in consternation: "Forgive me. I did not think you meant
it. I did not know that you were--were----"
"Ruined!" he nodded laughingly. "I am, practically. I have a
little left--badly invested--which I'm trying to get at. Otherwise
matters are gay enough."
She said wonderingly: "Had this happened when--I saw you that first
time?"
"It had just happened. I looked the part, didn't I?"
"No. How could you be so--interesting and--and be--what you
were--knowing this all the while?"
"I went to that party absolutely stunned. I saw you in a corner of
the box--I had just been hearing about you--and--I don't know now
what I said to you. Afterward"--he glanced at her--"the world was
spinning, Mrs. Paige. You only remained real--" His face altered
subtly. "And when I touched you----"
"I gave you a waltz, I believe," she said, striving to speak
naturally; but her pulses had begun to stir again; the same
inexplicable sense of exhilaration and insecurity was creeping over
her.
With a movement partly nervous she turned toward the door, but
there sounded no rustle of her sister's skirts from the stairs, and
her reluctant eyes slowly reverted to him, then fell in silence,
out of which she presently strove to extract them both with some
casual commonplace.