I have not been in Tiffany's in months." Belwether, crestfallen under the white menace of Quarrier's face, nodded, and essayed a chuckle without success.
Sylvia, at first listless and uninterested, looked inquiringly from the major to Quarrier, surprised at the suppressed feeling exhibited over so trivial a gaucherie.

If Quarrier had chosen a collar like Agatha's for her, what of it?
But as he had not, on his own statement, what did it matter?
Why should he look that way at the foolish major, to whose garrulous gossip he was accustomed, and whose inability to refrain from prying was notorious enough.
Turning disdainfully, she caught a glimpse of Plank's shocked and altered face.

It relapsed instantly into the usual inert expression; and a queer, uncomfortable perplexity began to invade her.

What had happened to stir up these three men?
Of what importance was an indiscretion of an old gentleman whose fatuous vanity and consequent blunders everybody was familiar with?
And, after all, Howard had not bought anything at Tiffany's; he said so himself.

...