He started when he heard Carey's voice
saying:
"Why d'you let her dance with that blackguard?"
"Hulloa, Carey?"
"Come to the supper-room. I want to have a yarn with you. And all
this"--he made a wavering, yet violent, gesture towards the
dancers--"might be a Holbein."
"A dance of death? What nonsense you talk!"
"Come to the supper-room."
Robin looked at his friend narrowly.
"You're bored. Let's go and take a stroll down Park Lane."
"No. Well, then, if you won't--"
"I'll come."
He put his arm through Carey's, and they went out together.
Lady Holme was generally agreeable to men. She was particularly charming
to Leo Ulford that night. He was not an interesting man, but he seemed to
interest her very much. They sat out together for a long time in the
corner of a small drawing-room, far away from the music. She had said to
Robin Pierce that she thought there was something about Leo Ulford that
was like her husband, and when she talked to him she found the
resemblance even greater than she had supposed.
Lord Holme and Leo Ulford were of a similar type. Both were strong,
healthy, sensual, slangy, audacious in a dull kind of fashion--Lady Holme
did not call it dull--serenely and perpetually intent upon having
everything their own way in life. Both lived for the body and ignored the
soul, as they would have ignored a man with a fine brain, a passionate
heart, a narrow chest and undeveloped muscles.
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