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Since Malcourt's arrival he and Portlaw had joyously waded into whatever gaiety offered, neck-deep; Portlaw had attached himself to the Club with all the deliberation of a born gourmet and a hopeless gambler; Malcourt roamed society and its suburbs, drifting from set to set and from coterie to coterie, always an opportunist, catholic in his tastes, tolerant of anything where pretty women were inclined to be amiable.
He turned with subtle impudence to Wayward. "And the world is littered with the shattered fragments." "It's littered with pups, too," observed Wayward, turning on his heel. And he walked away, limping, his white mess jacket a pale spot in the gloom. Malcourt looked after him; an edge of teeth glimmering beneath his full upper lip.
Malcourt walked slowly over to where Shiela stood. She shrank involuntarily away from him as he bent to pick up the pad which had fallen from her hands. "There's nothing to be frightened about," he said, forcing a smile; and, holding the pad under the light, scanned it attentively. His sister came over to him, asking if the letters made any sense. He shook his head.
The world had grown silent; across the ravine a deer among the trees watched him, motionless. Suddenly the deer leaped in an ecstasy of terror and went crashing away into obscurity. But Malcourt lay very, very still. His hat was off; the cliff breeze played with his dark curly hair, lifting it at the temples, stirring the one obstinate strand that never lay quite flat on the crown of his head.
I do not think there is any man in the world for whom I have the respect and affection that I have for Hamil." Wayward was staring at him almost insolently; Portlaw, comfortably affected, shook his head in profound sympathy, glancing sideways at the door where his butler always announced dinner. Constance had heard, but she looked only at young Mrs. Malcourt.
In the mean time if you don't mind letting me have enough to square things " Portlaw hesitated, balancing his bulk uneasily first on one foot, then the other. "I don't mind; no; only " "Only what?" asked Malcourt. "I told you I couldn't afford to play cards on this trip, but you insisted." "Certainly, certainly! I expected to consider you as as "
"Why on earth did you say such a thing to me?" he asked. "I don't know," she said simply; "I really don't, Mr. Malcourt." And it was true; for their slight acquaintance warranted neither badinage nor effrontery; and she did not understand the sudden impulse toward provocation, unless it might be her contempt for Shiela Cardross. And that was the doing of Mrs. Van Dieman.
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.
Cecile's observations were plainly perfunctory, but she made them nevertheless, for she had begun to take the same feminine interest in Malcourt that everybody was now taking in view of his very pronounced attentions to Virginia Suydam. All the world may not love a lover, but all the world watches him.
However, Malcourt happened to be very intent upon his own train of thought, so absorbed, in fact, that it was a long while before he looked up and around, as though somebody had suddenly spoken his name. But it was only the voice which had sounded so often and familiarly in his ears; and he smiled and inclined his graceful head to listen, folding his hands under his chin.
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