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Sometimes he thought of Portlaw's perverse determination to spoil the magnificent simplicity of the place with exotic effects lugged in by the ears; sometimes he wondered what Mr. Cardross could have to say to Malcourt what matter of such urgent importance could possibly concern those two men.
The latter bustled about the room with an air of more or less importance, sorted his letters, fussed with a newspaper; and every now and then Malcourt, glancing up, caught Portlaw's eyes peeping triumphantly around corners at him. "You've been riding?" he said, much amused. "Are you stiff?" "A trifle," replied the other carelessly. "I must keep it up.
Piloted by Malcourt, the Tressilvains, thickly shod and water-proofed, tramped about with rod and creel and returned for luncheon where their blunt criticisms on the fishing aroused Portlaw's implacable resentment.
It was a losing game from the beginning for both of us." "Are you going to be coward enough to drop your cards and quit the game?" "Call it that. But the cards are marked and the game crooked as crooked as Herby's." He began to laugh. "The world's dice are loaded; I've got enough." "Yet you beat Bertie in spite of " "For Portlaw's sake. I wouldn't fight with marked cards for my own sake.
The hard, hammering pulse in his throat made it difficult for him to speak; but he managed to force an unsteady laugh; "Shiela, there is only one way for me, now to fire and fall back. I've got to go up to Portlaw's camp anyhow " "And after that?" "Mrs. Ascott wants a miniature Versailles. I'll show you the rough sketches " "And after that?" "I've one or two promises " "And afterward?" "Nothing."
"I suppose you'll go to Luckless Lake," observed Hamil, pausing beside Malcourt in his walk. "Yes. There's plenty to do. We stripped ten thousand trout in October, and we're putting in German boar this spring." "I should think your occupation would be fascinating." "Yes? It's lonely, too, until Portlaw's camp parties begin. I get an overdose of nature at times.
Portlaw took the South Road." Malcourt grinned again, perfectly certain, now, of Portlaw's destination; and thinking to himself that unless his fatuous employer had been landed in a ditch somewhere, en route, he was by this time returning from Pride's Fall with considerable respect for Mrs. Ascott. As a matter of fact, Portlaw had already started on his way back. Mrs.
"I dare not to-night." "For any particular reason?" "For a thousand.... One is that I simply can't believe you are really going North to-morrow. Why do you?" She had asked it nearly a thousand times. "I've got to begin Portlaw's park; and, besides, my work here is over " "Is that all you care about me?
And now, in the two years of his official tenure, Malcourt already completely dominated him, often bullied him, criticised him to his face, betrayed no illusions concerning the absolute self-interest which dictated Portlaw's policy in all things, coolly fixed and regulated all salaries, including his own, and, in short, matched Portlaw's undisguised selfishness with a cynicism so sparkling and so frankly ruthless that Portlaw gradually formed for him a real attachment.
Besides Louis Malcourt had arrived; and Virginia had never quite forgotten Malcourt who had made one at a house party in the Adirondacks some years since, although even when he again encountered her, Malcourt had retained no memory of the slim, pallid girl who had for a week been his fellow-guest at Portlaw's huge camp on Luckless Lake.
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