CHAPTER IX.
THERE was a buzzing, and a thronging round the victorious player.
Ina rose, and, with a delicate movement of her milk-white hand, turned
the mountain of gold and column of notes toward Ashmead. "Make haste,
please," she whispered; then put on her gloves deliberately, while
Ashmead shoved the gold and the notes anyhow into the inner pockets of
his shooting-jacket, and buttoned it well up.
_"Allons,"_ said she, calmly, and took his arm; but, as she moved away,
she saw Zoe Vizard passing on the other side of the table. Their eyes
met: she dropped Ashmead's arm and made her a sweeping courtesy full of
polite consideration, and a sort of courteous respect for the person
saluted, coupled with a certain dignity, and then she looked wistfully at
her a moment. I believe she would have spoken to her if she had been
alone; but Miss Maitland and Fanny Dover had, both of them, a trick of
putting on _noli-me-tangere_ faces among strangers. It did not mean much;
it is an unfortunate English habit. But it repels foreigners: they
neither do it nor understand it.
Those two faces, not downright forbidding, but uninviting, turned the
scale; and the Klosking, who was not a forward woman, did not yield to
her inclination and speak to Zoe.
Pages:
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215