“Be careful, Joe,” she cried angrily.  But in his condition, nerves on edge, he paid no heed and went rapidly on: 

“I’m just a business man!  And you’ve made me feel your contempt for all that!  And he’s a musician, he’s different—­he has exactly what you want!  So you went to his studio twice a week—­for months and months—­without letting me know—­although he was a friend of mine!  And you went to the Ritz and the opera!  And then I brought him here to dine!  God, how you two must have smiled at each other—­when I wasn’t looking!”

“Joe!  Joe!”

“You lied to me, didn’t you, when he came!  You say you’ll explain it in a word!  Well, what’s the word?  I’m waiting!”

“There isn’t any!” Her face was white.  “I don’t care to explain to you now!” she cried.  He looked at her.  She could see he was trembling, and she nearly changed her mind.  But her anger came again.  “I won’t!” she thought.  “Not tonight!”

“Then you and I are through, you know,” he said very huskily.  He turned and went into the hall, and a moment later the outer door closed.  Ethel sat down and stared blankly.

“I acted like an idiot!”

CHAPTER XXII

As she sat there she grew furious with herself for having bungled so.  Why hadn’t she explained to him?  Why hadn’t she simply told him her plan for giving him back his friends?  All at once she could hear herself saying what she should have said to Joe: 

“I may have been wrong about it, Joe, but I thought the best way to bring you back to all the things you used to love was to let you think you were doing it.  So I let you and Dwight come together alone.  I kept in the background, as I did about getting you into that club of yours.  I was afraid to show my hand.”  On and on she talked to him.  Oh, how simple and convincing, strong, and sensible and true.  “Why didn’t you say it, you little fool?  You acted just like a scared young girl found out in doing something wrong!” She was ready to cry, but checked herself.  “At least don’t be a baby now.  What are you to do about it?” She bit her lip.  Now it was too late.  She had made it worse—­a hundred times!  All at once she rose and began to walk.  “Oh, rubbish!” she thought, impatiently.  “You’re not to give up, when everything else in your whole life was going so perfectly splendidly! . . .  Why, of course.  That’s it.  I’ll call up Nourse, and have him come and explain to Joe how I went to him at the very start.”

With a swift feeling of relief Ethel went to the telephone.

“Mr. Nourse is out of town.”

“Oh, yes.  Thank you.  I’d forgotten.  When do you expect him back?”

“Not until the end of the week.”