It won't do. Things keep happening--unexpected
things--like last night. Still if he comes to San Francisco--if he asks
again to 'show me the sights' I don't see why I shouldn't say yes--just to
so small a favour--and to make up--in case his feelings are hurt."
In her heart she knew that his feelings were hurt. But had she not hurt
her own?
There was a piano in the drawing-room part of the car. Sonia was singing
to Falconer. They had forgotten Mrs. May, without whose martyred presence
they could not have had this happiness. The soul of the Russian girl
seemed to pour out with her voice, as upon a tide. The sorrow and pain of
her past exile were in it at first: then it rose to the joy of new life in
a new world. The sweetness of the voice and all that it meant of love
after anguish stabbed Angela as she listened in the distance, like a knife
dipped in honey.
XVII
SEVENTEEN-MILE DRIVE
Things were better at Del Monte. Mrs. Harland was there, and made a
delightful hostess. It rather amused Angela to watch Theo Dene with Sonia
Dobieski, and to see how delightful Falconer's sister was to both. But
somehow she contrived that Miss Dene should not be of the motoring party
for the Seventeen-Mile Drive. A young officer from the Presidio was
produced, to compensate as far as could be for her frankly lamented
"failure"; and Theo resigned herself to a second-best flirtation.
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