I'm driving to Wenniston, after breakfast, with Beverly Plank, and I need sleep." "I want to talk to you," he repeated doggedly.
She regarded him for a moment in silence, then, with an assenting gesture, turned away into her room; and he followed, heavily apprehensive but resolved.
She had seated herself among a pile of cushions, one knee crossed over the other, her slim white foot half concealed by the silken toe of her slipper.

And as he pulled a chair forward for himself, her pretty black eyes, which slanted a little, took his measure and divined trouble.
"Leila," he said, "why can't we have--" "A cigarette ?" she interrupted, indicating her dainty case on the table.
He took one, savagely aware of defiance somewhere.

She lighted her own from a candle and settled back, studying the sequence of blue smoke-rings jetting upward to the ceiling.
"About this man Plank," he began, louder than he had intended through sheer self-mistrust; and his wife made a quick, disdainful sign of caution, which subdued his voice instantly.

"Why can't we take him up--together, Leila ?" he ended lamely, furious at his own uneasiness in a matter which might concern him vitally.
"I see no necessity of your taking him up," observed his wife serenely.
"I can do what may be useful to him in town." "So can I.There are clubs where he ought to be seen--" "I can manage such matters much better." "You can't manage everything," he insisted sullenly.

"There are chances of various sorts--" "Investments ?" asked Mrs.Mortimer, with bright malice.
"See here, Leila, you have your own way too much.