Yet he was glad when the guests began to drop off, the great rooms
thinned, and Susy, appearing on the arm of her husband, coquettishly
reminded him of his promise.
"For I want to talk to you of old times. General Brant," she went on,
turning explanatorily to Boompointer, "married my adopted mother in
California--at Robles, a dear old place where I spent my earliest years.
So, you see, we are sort of relations by marriage," she added, with
delightful naivete.
Hooker's own vainglorious allusion to his relations to the man before
him flashed across Brant's mind, but it left now only a smile on his
lips. He felt he had already become a part of the irresponsible comedy
played around him. Why should he resist, or examine its ethics too
closely? He offered his arm to Susy as they descended the stairs, but,
instead of pausing in the supper-room, she simply passed through it with
a significant pressure on his arm, and, drawing aside a muslin curtain,
stepped into the moonlit conservatory. Behind the curtain there was a
small rustic settee; without releasing his arm she sat down, so that
when he dropped beside her, their hands met, and mutually clasped.
"Now, Kla'uns," she said, with a slight, comfortable shiver as she
nestled beside him, "it's a little like your chair down at old Robles,
isn't it?--tell me! And to think it's five years ago! But, Kla'uns,
what's the matter? You are changed," she said, looking at his dark face
in the moonlight, "or you have something to tell me.
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