"I suppose there isn't anything to say. Look here, Nelly, hasn't that
stage-driver brought the hamper yet? When are we going to have
something to eat?"
"Oh, pretty soon," she said impatiently.
They were standing at one of the long windows in the parlor; through
the tilted slats of the Venetian blinds the April sunshine fell in
pale bars across her hair and dress, across the old Turkey carpet on
the floor, across the high white wainscoting and half-way up the
landscape-papered walls. The room was full of cheerful dignity; the
heavy, old-fashioned furniture of the Stuffed Animal House was
unchanged, even the pictures, hanging rather near the ceiling, had not
been removed--steel-engravings of Landseer's dogs, and old and very
good colored prints of Audubon's birds. The mantel-piece of black
marble veined with yellow was supported by fluted columns; on it were
two blown-glass vases of decalcomania decoration, then two gilt
lustres with prisms, then two hand-screens of woolwork, and in the
middle an ormolu clock--"Iphigenia in Aulis"--under a glass shade. In
the recess at one side of the fireplace was a tall bookcase with
closed doors, but a claw-footed sofa stood out from the wall at an
angle that prevented any access to the books. "I can't read Stuffed
Animal books," Helena had long ago confided to Lloyd Pryor. "The
British Classics, if you please! and Baxter's Saint's Rest, and
The Lady of the Manor." So Mr. Pryor made a point of providing
her with light literature. He pulled a paper-covered volume out of his
pocket now, and handed it to her.
"Not improving, Nelly, I assure you; and there is a box of candy in
the hamper."
She thanked him, but put the book down. "Talk to me, Lloyd. Tell me--
everything! How are you? How is Alice? Are you very busy with politics
and things? Talk to me."
"Well," he said good naturedly, "where am I to begin? Yes: I'm very
well. And very busy. And unusually poor. Isn't that interesting?"
"Oh, Lloyd! Are you in earnest? Lloyd, you know I have a lot of money,
and of course, if you want it, it is yours."
He was lounging lazily on the sofa, and drew her down beside him,
smiling at her through his curling lashes. "It isn't as bad as that.
It is only that I have shouldered the debts of the old Pryor-Barr Co.,
Limited. You know my grandfather organized it, and my father was
president of it, and I served my 'prenticeship to business in it."