"I don't wonder. You seemed to have lost your head."
"Probably then because it wasn't you."
"Fiddlesticks! You looked as though you could cut your throat for her.
Didn't you feel that way? I am sure you did."
"You must be thinking of Cantillon. That's the way he looks at you. If
he didn't, he wouldn't have any feeling at all. One might even say he
was quite heartless."
Kate was laughing. In laughing she showed her red mouth and her teeth,
small, white, a trifle uneven, and, though she continued to show them,
her laughter ceased. With her red mouth open, she stared. That mouth
closed, opened again. She was saying something.
Everybody was exclaiming. All were hurriedly getting up.
Paliser turned to Margaret. She had gone.
Verelst now was between him and her chair. He was bending over. Bending
also was Mrs. Austen. On the other side were Cantillon, Ogston and Miss
Bleecker.
Then, as the surprise of it lifted Paliser, he saw that they were
lifting her.
"Brandy!" said Verelst. "Tell the man."
"Permit me!" Without officiousness, without noticeable shoves, Paliser
got among them and got on his knees beside the girl whom Verelst and
Mrs. Austen were supporting.
Mrs. Austen wanted to wink at him. Instead, she made way. He took her
place, took the girl in his arms and thought he would like to keep her
there--though not, of course, forever. But he said: "The other room,
perhaps."
Margaret's head was on his shoulder. She raised it. Her eyes had opened.
She looked at him, at the arms that were about her. A shudder shook her.
Verelst stretched a hand, Ogston another. With them, but otherwise
without effort, she stood up.
Cantillon exclaimed at her. "Right as rain again! I say, Miss Austen,
you did give us a start!"
Yet at once, and so endearingly, with the air of an elder sister, Mrs.
Austen resumed the maternal functions. "Dearest child, you have been
overdoing it!"
Kate patted the girl. "Margaret! I nearly fainted too. I was looking at
you. You went over like that!"
"Sorry," said Margaret evenly. Her hands had gone to the back of her
head. She dropped them and added: "If you will excuse me."
Lovingly her mother dismissed her. "The smelling-salts! You will find
them somewhere." The lady looked about. "Shall we have coffee in the
other room? You men can smoke there if you like, or here if you prefer."
It was quite modern. But Verelst was old, therefore old-fashioned. He
preferred the dining-room. Already the girls had followed Margaret. Mrs.
Austen passed out. Verelst sat down. So also did Cantillon and Ogston.
But Paliser, who had nothing to say to them, accompanied Mrs. Austen.
"It never happened to her before," she told him. "Where shall you sit?
Here, by me?" In speaking she made room on the sofa and with amiable
suspicion eyed him. "You hadn't said anything to her, had you?"