Mrs. Almar was not to be outdone.  “Well,” she said, “I may as well be honest.  I can imagine myself doing it, for the right man.  And we should have had an amusing evening of it, which was more than we had here, I can tell you.  We were very dreary.  Mr. Wickham tried to relieve the monotony by a game of piquet, but I’m afraid he did not really enjoy it, for he has not asked me to play since.”  And she cast a quick stimulating glance at Wickham, whose usual inability to say nothing again betrayed him.

“Oh,” he said, “I enjoyed our game immensely.”

“Good,” answered Nancy.  “We’ll have another this afternoon then.”

“Indeed, yes,” said Wickham, looking rather wan.

“After Mr. Riatt has gone,” said Nancy distinctly.  She knew that Laura had had no opportunity to convey this intelligence to Christine, and it amused her to see how she would support the blow.  Christine’s expression did not change, but her blue eyes grew suddenly a little darker.  She turned slowly toward Riatt.

“And are you leaving us?” she asked.

“Sorry to say I am.”

“What a bore,” said Miss Fenimer politely.  Hickson’s simple heart bounded for joy.  “She’s refused him,” he thought, “and that’s why he’s rushing off like this.”

“Yes,” said Ussher, “I should think he would want to go home and take some care of himself.  It’s a wonder if he doesn’t develop pneumonia.”

Christine smiled at Riatt across the table.  “They make me feel as if I had been very cruel, Mr. Riatt,” she said.

“Cruel, my dear,” cried Nancy.  “Oh, I’m sure you weren’t that,” and then intoxicated by her own success, she made her first tactical error.  She turned to Riatt and said:  “Don’t forget that you are dining with me on Wednesday evening.”  She enjoyed this exhibition of power.  She saw Laura and Christine glance at each other.  But they were not dismayed; they saw at once that Max had not been playing his hand alone; he was going not entirely on his own initiative, and that was encouraging.

Riatt, who perfectly understood the public protectorate that was thus established over him, resented it; in fact by the time they rose from the table, he was thoroughly disgusted with all of them—­weary, as he said to himself of their hideous little games.  He hardened his heart even as Pharaoh did, and he felt not the least hesitation in according Laura the promised interview, for the reason that he felt no doubt of his own powers of resistance.

He permitted himself to be ostentatiously led away, upstairs to her little private sitting-room, with its books, and fireplace, and signed photographs, and he pretended not to see Nancy Almar’s glance, which was almost a wink, and might have been occasioned by the fact that she herself was at the same moment gently guiding Wickham in the direction of a card-table.

Laura made her cousin very comfortable, in a long chair by the fire, with his cigarettes and his coffee beside him on a little table, and then she began murmuring: