'Was it worth while?'"
"Oh, don't," said Anne.
Mrs. Lorrimer laughed, her old competent self again.
"It's rather cheap to say gloomy things about life," she said. She called the waitress and settled the bill.
As they got to the shop door a taxi crawled past and Mrs. Lorrimer hailed it.
"Can I give you a lift?" she asked. "I am going south of the Park."
Anne's face had lighted up.
"No, thank you. I see my friend turning the corner.
Thank you so much, Mrs. Lorrimer.
Good-by."
"Good-by.
Good luck," said the older woman.
She drove away and Anne hurried forward.
Rhoda's face lighted up when she saw her friend, then changed to a slightly guilty expression.
"Rhoda, have you been to see Mrs. Oliver?" demanded Anne.
"Well, as a matter of fact, I have."
"And I just caught you."
"I don't know what you mean by caught.
Let's go down here and take a bus.
You'd gone off on your own with the boy friend.
I thought at least he'd give you tea."
Anne was silent for a minute - a voice ringing in her ears,
"Can't we pick up your friend somewhere and all have tea together?"
And her own answer - hurried, without taking time to think,
"Thanks awfully, but we've got to go out to tea together with some people."
A lie - and such a silly lie.
The stupid way one said the first thing that came into one's head instead of just taking a minute or two to think.
Perfectly easy to have said,
"Thanks, but my friend has got to go out to eat."
That is, if you didn't want, as she hadn't wanted, to have Rhoda, too.
Rather odd, that, the way she hadn't wanted Rhoda.
She had wanted, definitely, to keep Despard to herself.
She had felt jealous. Jealous of Rhoda.
Rhoda was so bright, so ready to talk, so full of enthusiasm and life.
The other evening Major Despard had looked as though he thought Rhoda nice.
But it was her, Anne Meredith, he had come down to see.
Rhoda was like that. She didn't mean it, but she reduced you to background.
No, definitely she hadn't wanted Rhoda there.
But she had managed it very stupidly, getting flurried like that.
If she'd managed better, she might be sitting now having tea with Major Despard at his club or somewhere.
She felt definitely annoyed with Rhoda.
Rhoda was a nuisance.
And what she had been doing, going to see Mrs. Oliver?
Out loud she said, "Why did you go and see Mrs. Oliver?"
"Well, she asked us to."
"Yes, but I didn't suppose she really meant it.
I expect she always has to say that."
"She did mean it.
She was awfully nice - couldn't have been nicer.
She gave me one of her books.