Elizabeth, sitting beside Mrs. Ogden, smiled bitterly in the dark. "Wait
a while," she said to herself. "Wait a while!" Her own emotions
surprised her, she was conscious of a feeling of acute anger. As if by a
simultaneous impulse the two women suddenly drew as far apart as the
narrow confines of the cab permitted. To Elizabeth it seemed as if
something so intense as to be almost tangible leapt out between them--a
naked sword.
Sitting with her back to the driver, Joan was lost in thought; she was
thinking of the utter hopelessness of making her mother really happy.
But with another part of her mind she was pondering Richard's sudden
outburst in the library. She liked him, she thought what a satisfactory
brother he would be. Why was he so afraid of being caught and bottled?
Lawrence, she felt, must be bottled already; he liked it, she was sure
that Lawrence would think it the right thing to be. She wondered how
Richard would manage to escape--if he did escape. A picture of him rose
before her eyes; he made her laugh, he was so emphatic. She resolved to
talk him over with Elizabeth. Of course it was all nonsense--still, he
seemed dreadfully afraid. What was it really that he was afraid of, and
why was he so afraid for her?
The cab jolted abruptly, Joan's thoughts jolting with it. The driver had
pulled up to drop Elizabeth at her brother's house.
_BOOK II_