"What a delightful room!" said Mrs. Sayre. "And how do you keep a maid
as trim as that?"
"I must have service," Nina replied. "The butler's marching in a parade
or something. How nice of you to come and see our little place. It's a
band-box, of course."
Mrs. Sayre sat down, a gross disharmony in the room, but a solid and not
unkindly woman for all that.
"My dear," she said, "I am not paying a call. Or not only that. I came
to talk to you about something. About Wallace and your sister."
Nina was gratified and not a little triumphant.
"I see," she said. "Do you mean that they are fond of one another?"
"Wallace is. Of course, this talk is between ourselves, but--I'm going
to be frank, Nina. I want Wallie to marry, and I want him to marry soon.
You and I know that the life of an unattached man about town is full of
temptations. I want him to settle down. I'm lonely, too, but that's not
so important."
Nina hesitated.
"I don't know about Elizabeth. She's fond of Wallie, as who isn't? But
lately--"
"Yes?"
"Well, for the last few days I have been wondering. She doesn't talk,
you know. But she has been seeing something of Dick Livingstone."
"Doctor Livingstone! She'd be throwing herself away!"
"Yes, but she's like that. I mean, she isn't ambitious. We've always
expected her to throw herself away; at least I have."
A half hour later Leslie, upstairs, leaned over the railing to see if
there were any indications of departure. The door was open, and Mrs.
Sayre evidently about to take her leave. She was saying: "It's very close to my heart, Nina dear, and I know you will be tactful.
I haven't stressed the material advantages, but you might point them out
to her."
A few moments later Leslie came downstairs. Nina was sitting alone,
thinking, with a not entirely pleasant look of calculation on her face.
"Well?" he said. "What were you two plotting?"
"Plotting? Nothing, of course."
He looked down at her. "Now see here, old girl," he said, "you keep your
hands off Elizabeth's affairs. If I know anything she's making a damn
good choice, and don't you forget it."