"Anything to oblige you, Laura," he said.

She did not quite like his tone, but felt she might safely leave the rest
to Christine.

Mrs. Almar, unaware of these plots, settled down as soon as the meal was
over, on a comfortable sofa large enough for two, with a box of
cigarettes at her side and a current magazine that contained a new
article on flying. The bird-like objects in the huge page of cloudy sky
at once caught Max's eye. He came and bent over it and her, with his
hands in his pockets. Still absorbed in it, she half-unconsciously swept
aside her skirts, and he sat down beside her. She murmured a
question--it was only about planes, and he answered it. Their heads were
close together when Christine came down in her dark furs ready to go.
The bells of Jack Ussher's fastest trotter were already to be heard
tinkling at the door.

"Are you ready, Max?" said Laura, rather sharply.

"Laura expects every man to do his duty," murmured Nancy, without
looking up.

Riatt expressed himself as entirely ready. Ussher lent him a fur cap and
heavy gloves, warned him about the charmingly uncertain character of the
horse; he and Christine were tucked into the sleigh, and they were off.

The snow, as Laura had said, did not seem to amount to much, the wind was
behind them, the horse fast, the roads well packed. Riatt glanced down at
his lovely companion, and felt his spirits rising. He smiled at her and
she smiled back.