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Already Undine's chief delight was to "dress up" in her mother's Sunday skirt and "play lady" before the wardrobe mirror. The taste had outlasted childhood, and she still practised the same secret pantomime, gliding in, settling her skirts, swaying her fan, moving her lips in soundless talk and laughter; but lately she had shrunk from everything that reminded her of her baffled social yearnings.
"Well, think it over let me know this evening," Ralph said, proportioning the waiter's fee to a bill burdened by Undine's reckless choice of primeurs. His wife was to join the newly-arrived Mrs. Shallum in a round of the rue de la Paix; and he had seized the opportunity of slipping off to a classical performance at the Français.
Since Undine's coming the library fire had never been allowed to go out; and of late, after experimenting with the two drawing-rooms and the so-called "study" where Raymond kept his guns and saw the bailiff, she had selected the gallery as the most suitable place for the new and unfamiliar ceremony of afternoon tea.
They will hear it in my voice, they will feel it in my touch, they will see it in my eyes. And having known that now, at length, I could love them well, they would grieve to lose me. 'We will leave to-day, this very hour, said the knight, so pleased was he with Undine's new care for her kind old foster-parents.
It looked like a business communication and had apparently been sent to Undine's hotel in Paris and forwarded to him by her hand. "Another bill!" he reflected grimly, as he threw it aside and felt in the outer envelope for her letter. There was nothing there, and after a first sharp pang of disappointment he picked up the enclosure and opened it.
He was as simple and unconsciously powerful as ever, but there was something there was not before, reminding me of the dawning of Undine's soul. He was called off in the middle of our consultation as to the house, which was our common property, by a message that Mr. Crabbe would be glad of a few minutes with him. "Was there any fresh annoyance about the Hydriots?" I asked, when he came back.
They had counted a great deal on the Fairford dinner as a means of tranquillization, and it was a blow to detect signs of the opposite result when, late the next morning, their daughter came dawdling into the sodden splendour of the Stentorian breakfast-room. The symptoms of Undine's nervousness were unmistakable to Mr. and Mrs. Spragg.
Undine's preference was for the worldly parties, at which games were played, and she returned home laden with prizes in Dutch silver; but she was duly impressed by the debating clubs, where ladies of local distinction addressed the company from an improvised platform, or the members argued on subjects of such imperishable interest as: "What is charm?" or "The Problem-Novel" after which pink lemonade and rainbow sandwiches were consumed amid heated discussion of the "ethical aspect" of the question.
He had no other means of doing this, indeed, than by tricks for Undine often rebuked the swelling waves or the contrary winds, and then the insolence of the enemy was instantly humbled and subdued; but his attacks were renewed, and Undine's reproofs again became necessary, so that the pleasure of the fellow-travellers was completely destroyed.
"Don't let's pay Peter the compliment of squabbling over him," he said, turning away to pour himself a cup of tea. When he had filled his cup he sat down beside Undine, with a smile. "No doubt he was joking and thought you were; but if you really made him believe we might go with him you'd better drop him a line." Undine's brow still gloomed. "You refuse, then?" "Refuse? I don't need to!
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