It began to dawn upon Hosack that Joan had slipped away with Harry Oldershaw from the fact that Palgrave first became restless and irritable, then had a short sharp spat with Barclay about the length of the line on the Western front that was held by the British and finally got up and went into the house and almost immediately prowled out alone for a sulky walk along the beach.
Chortling as he watched him, although annoyed that he, himself, was not going to have an opportunity of saying soft things to Joan for some hours, Hosack made himself comfortable, lit another cigar and pondered sleepily about what he called "the infatuation of Gilbert the precious.""I can sympathize with the feller's being gone on the girl," he said to himself, undisturbed by Regina's frequent bursts of loud laughter at young Barclay's quiet but persistent banter, "but dammit, why make a conspicuous ass of himself? Why make the whole blessed house party, including his hostess, pay for his being turned down in favor of young Harry? Bad form, I call it.Any one would imagine that he was engaged to be married to Joan and therefore had some right to a monopoly by the way he goes on, snarling at everybody and showing the whites of his eyes like a jealous collie.Everybody's talking, of course, and making jokes about him, especially as it's perfectly obvious that the harder he hunts her the more she dodges him....
Curious chap, Gilbert.He goes through life like the ewe lamb of an over-indulgent mother and when he takes a fancy to a thing he can't conceive why everybody doesn't rush to give it him, whatever the cost or sacrifice....If young Harry hadn't been here to keep her amused and on the move I wonder if Joan would have been a bit kinder to our friend G.P.? She's been in a weird mood, as perverse as April.I don't mind her treating me as if I was a doddering old gentleman so long as she keeps Gilbert off....A charming, pretty, heart-turning thing.I'd give something to know the real reason why that husband of hers lets her run loose this way.And where's her mother, and why don't those old people step in?--such a child as she is.Well, it's a pretty striking commentary on the way our young people are brought up, there's no doubt about it.If she was my daughter, now--but I suppose she'd tell me to go and hang myself if I tried to butt in.Divorce and a general mess-up-the usual end, I take it."He shook his head, and his ash dropped all over his clothes and he began to nod.He would have given a great deal to put his feet on a chair and a handkerchief over his face and sink into a blissful nap.
The young people had gone off somewhere, and there were only his wife, the Major, and the bride on the veranda.And, after all, why shouldn't he? Cornucopia could always be relied upon to play up--her conversational well was inexhaustible, and as for Mrs.Thatcher--nothing natural ever stopped the incessant wagging of her tongue.
But it was not to be.He heard a new voice, the squeak of a cane chair suddenly pushed back, looked up to see the Major in an attitude of false delight and out came Mrs.Cooper Jekyll followed,--as he inwardly exclaimed,--"by the gentle Alice Palgrave, by all that's complicating! Well, I'm jiggered.""Well," cried Cornucopia, extending her ample hand."This IS a surprise.""Yes, I intended it to be," said Mrs.Jekyll, more than ever Southampton in her plague veil and single eyeglass, "just to break the aloofness of your beach life.""And dear Alice, too,--neater than ever.How very nice to see you, my dear, and how's your poor mother?"Her little hand disappearing between Mrs.Hosack's two podgy members like the contents of a club sandwich, Alice allowed herself to be kissed on both cheeks, murmured an appropriate response, greeted the Thatchers, waved to Hosack who came forward as quickly as he could with pins and needles in one leg and threw a searching glance about for Gilbert.
