Chapter 13 - Page 2

Paillard's," Van Degen concluded. "And about
the other business--that's a go too? I leave it to you to settle the
date."

The nod and laugh they exchanged seemed to hint at depths of collusion
from which Ralph was pointedly excluded; and he wondered how large
a programme of pleasure they had already had time to sketch out. He
disliked the idea of Undine's being too frequently seen with Van Degen,
whose Parisian reputation was not fortified by the connections that
propped it up in New York; but he did not want to interfere with her
pleasure, and he was still wondering what to say when, as the door
closed, she turned to him gaily.

"I'm so glad you've come! I've got some news for you." She laid a light
touch on his arm.

Touch and tone were enough to disperse his anxieties, and he answered
that he was in luck to find her already in when he had supposed her
engaged, over a Nouveau Luxe tea-table, in repairing the afternoon's
ravages.

"Oh, I didn't shop much--I didn't stay out long." She raised a kindling
face to him. "And what do you think I've been doing? While you were
sitting in your stuffy old theatre, worrying about the money I was
spending (oh, you needn't fib--I know you were!) I was saving you
hundreds and thousands. I've saved you the price of our passage!"

Ralph laughed in pure enjoyment of her beauty. When she shone on him
like that what did it matter what nonsense she talked?

"You wonderful woman--how did you do it? By countermanding a tiara?"

"You know I'm not such a fool as you pretend!" She held him at arm's
length with a nod of joyous mystery. "You'll simply never guess! I've
made Peter Van Degen ask us to go home on the Sorceress. What. do you
say to that?"

She flashed it out on a laugh of triumph, without appearing to have a
doubt of the effect the announcement would produce.

Ralph stared at her. "The Sorceress? You MADE him?"

"Well, I managed it, I worked him round to it! He's crazy about the idea
now--but I don't think he'd thought of it before he came."

"I should say not!" Ralph ejaculated. "He never would have had the cheek
to think of it."

"Well, I've made him, anyhow! Did you ever know such luck?"

"Such luck?" He groaned at her obstinate innocence. "Do you suppose I'll
let you cross the ocean on the Sorceress?"

She shrugged impatiently. "You say that because your cousin doesn't go
on her."

"If she doesn't, it's because it's no place for decent women."

"It's Clare's fault if it isn't. Everybody knows she's crazy about you,
and she makes him