The Regent Read online

  VI

  One hour later, in the double-bedded chamber at the Majestic, as hiswife lay in bed and he was methodically folding up a creased white tieand inspecting his chin in the mirror, he felt that he was touchingagain, after an immeasurable interval, the rock-bottom of reality.Nellie, even when he could only see her face--and that in amirror!--was the most real phenomenon in his existence, and shepossessed the strange faculty of dispelling all unreality round abouther.

  "Well," he said, "how did you get on in the box?"

  "Oh!" she replied, "I got on very well with the Woldo woman. She's oneof our sort. But I'm not _so_ set up with your Elsie April."

  "Dash this collar!"

  Nellie continued:

  "And I can tell you another thing, I don't envy Mr. Rollo Wrissell."

  "What's Wrissell got to do with it?"

  "She means to marry him."

  "Elsie April means to marry Wrissell?"

  "He was in and out of the box all night. It was as plain as apikestaff."

  "What's amiss with my Elsie April?" Edward Henry demanded.

  "She's a thought too _pleasant_ for my taste," answered Nellie.

  Astonishing, how pleasantness is regarded with suspicion in the FiveTowns, even by women who can at a pinch be angels!