Cassy laughed again. "Yes. 'Una voce poco fa!' That would be just the
thing--wouldn't it?--to sing privately in private."
Paliser answered, though what, she did not hear. The orchestra drowned
it and for a moment she considered him, conscious that he was less
objectionable than he had seemed, yet entirely unconscious that such
objection as she had experienced was due to his extreme good-looks,
which in a man are always objectionable to a woman when she herself is
handsome, for they make him resemble her and, in so doing, constitute an
encroachment on her prerogatives, which, in itself, is an affront.
Cassy, ignorant of the psychology of it, equally unaware that
familiarity which may breed contempt can also dissolve dislike, and
feeling merely a lessening of her instinctive hostility, told herself
that he was perhaps not as cocky as he looked and drank of the glass
before her.
The Clos de Vougeot which, to the educated palate, is art, literature
and song combined, meant nothing more to her than if it had been Medoc.
She drank it because it was there at her hand, as she would have drunk
water, without savouring it, without any realisation of the enormity of
the crime. Yet though it meant nothing, nothing at least of which she
was aware, the royal cru was affecting her. It modified and mollified,
admonishing her that this man was an inoffensive insect who,
circumstances favouring, might, as Ma Tamby when inserting the flea had
told her, put her father on his feet.
In just what the favouring circumstances could consist, the fallen star
had not bothered to indicate, and she had not bothered because they were
too obvious and also because she was sure that Cassy was not insane.
Paliser abandoned his cigarette. "If you like, we might look in at the
Metropolitan. I believe I have a box."
Apart from down-stage and the centre of it, apart, too, from the flys
and the dressing-rooms, Cassy's imagination had not as yet conceived
anything more beckoning than a box at the opera, even though, as on this
occasion, the opera happened to be a concert. "Why, yes. Only----"
Pausing, she looked about. The imperial lady had gone.
"Only what?" Paliser very needlessly asked for he knew.
"I fear I am a bit overdressed."
"Not for Sunday. The house will be full and nobody in it. Besides, what
do you care?"