Ronald came running up the stairs. "Phil, you're wanted on the telephone."
"Hurray!" exclaimed Mrs. Chalmers callously, arresting her reluctant progress downstairs. "I hope it's a call, and I hope it keeps him out for hours."
"Loathsome woman," laughed Dr. Chalmers, unperturbed, and went downstairs. As things turned out, it was a call. "I shall be about an hour," said Dr. Chalmers.
"Good," said Mrs. Chalmers.
The party then resumed its course. A little group was sitting at one end of the ballroom in amicable converse, Mrs. Lefroy, Ronald and David Stratton, Roger, and Nicolson. To them came Ena Stratton.
"David, I'm bored. Let's go home." The David Strattons lived in a small house not five hundred yards away from the gates of Ronald's drive.
"Nonsense, Ena. You don't want to go home yet," said Ronald. "You'll spoil the party."
"I can't help that. I'm bored."
"Sit down, my dear, and don't be rude to your kind brother - in - law," said David.
"I won't sit down. And he isn't kind: he wouldn't do an Apache dance with me till I made him. Come on, David. Let's go."
"But I don't want to go yet."
"But I do. Well, give me the key, if you won't come. I tell you, I'm bored."
Roger wondered if everyone else were feeling as uncomfortable as this exchange was making him. He caught Mrs. Lefroy's eye and they smiled, surreptitiously and ruefully.
David Stratton could not recognize an opportunity when he saw one. Instead of handing the key over, thankfully, he attempted to persuade his wife to stay.
"Don't be an ass, David," said Ronald. "Give her the key if she really wants to go."
"I do," said Ena.
"All right, then, if you really want to. Here it is."
Ena took the key and balanced it on the palm of her hand.
"I don't think I will go after all. Let's do something amusing."
"Ena!" shouted Ronald.
"What?"
"Good - night."
"But I'm not going."
"Yes, you are. You wanted to, and you shall. Besides, you're bored."
"Only because I'm tired of dancing. I shouldn't be if only we could do something amusing."
"Well, we're not going to do anything amusing, so off you go. I can't stand the sight of bored guests about the place. Good - night."
Ena plumped herself down in a vacant chair, laughing triumphantly.
"Now she's got our attention, she's happy again," Roger confided to Mrs. Lefroy.
Ronald was happy, too, at the prospect of getting rid of Ena.
"Good - night, Ena," he repeated.
"No, no, I'm not going. I've changed my mind. It's a woman's privilege to change her mind, you know."
"I don't care about that. You said you were going, and you are." Ronald spat ostentatiously on his hands. "Come on, David. You take her head, and I'll take her heels."
"Ronald doing the he - man stuff," said Roger to Mrs. Lefroy. "Take warning."
"They're only joking."
"Not altogether. Ronald's pretending to joke, but he's extremely annoyed; and I'm not surprised. What's the betting on him getting rid of her?"
"About a hundred to one against, I should think," said Mrs. Lefroy, not very hopefully.
With merry laughter the trio set about their tussle. Ronald caught his sister - in - law by the heels, David took her shoulders. On the surface it was just meaningless horseplay. At any rate, Ena herself seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it as such, while she pretended to struggle and resist.
The two men carried her, kicking and shrieking with laughter, across the floor. Then, all of a sudden, by the door, Ena precipitated a change. She aimed a really vicious kick at Ronald, she struck up with her fists at her husband's face, and she screamed out:
"Let me go, you swine! Damn you, let me go!"
They let her go, with a thud on the parquet floor. Ena scrambled to her feet, rushed out of the room, and banged the door behind her with a crash that shook the house.
"Well, well, well," said Roger to Mrs. Lefroy.
David Stratton stood looking uncertainly at the closed door. "Oh, let her be," said Ronald.
David shrugged his shoulders. Then he walked back to the group where he had been sitting. "Sorry, everyone," he said briefly, a flush on his usually rather pale face.
Everyone began to be as nice to him as possible, with the result that a perfectly unnatural atmosphere was created, and it was all rather embarrassing. Roger made what was probably a popular movement when he rose to his feet with the remark that a drink he must and would have and carried David Stratton off with him to the bar, where he gave him a stiff whiskey - and - soda and talked firmly to him about the exploits of the M.C.C. cricket team in Australia the previous winter, a topic which, somewhat to his surprise, he discovered Stratton to be passionately interested.
In the meantime the party, relieved of Ena Stratton's blighting presence, went on with renewed vigour; dancing was resumed, those who wanted to do so stood in little groups and discussed, with the academic ferocity appropriate to two a.m., such questions as interested them, and everything in the ballroom was harmony.
At a quarter past two David Stratton joined his brother and Roger, who happened to be together at the bar, and announced that he thought he must be pushing off.
"Don't go yet, David. Everyone will think they ought to go too, if they see you slinking away."
"I think I'd better."
"If you're thinking of Ena, much better leave her alone for a bit longer. She'll take it out on you as usual if you get back before she's safely asleep."
"Still," said David, with a rueful smile, "I think I'd better, if you don't mind."
"All right, if you really mean it. Anyhow, good luck."
"Thanks. I'll probably need it. Good - night, Sheringham."
When he had gone, Ronald sighed.
"I'm afraid the poor lad's in for a nasty quarter of an hour."
"But he didn't do anything."
"Oh, that doesn't matter. He's always the scapegoat when that maniac of a woman doesn't think she's had enough admiration. David's such a good chap, and she leads him an absolute dog's life. Oh, well, thank heaven I'm a bachelor."
"Very temporarily, though?"
"Oh, very," said Ronald with a laugh.
"Once a married man, always a married man, I'm afraid," Roger said compassionately. "Both you and your brother are marrying types, aren't you?"
"Yes, I suppose so," Ronald agreed and swallowed a sip of his whiskey - and - soda. "Poor David, though. A first marriage should never be binding."
Roger, who had heard something like this already during the evening, knew what line to take. "One develops," he said tactfully.
"Yes, of course. But apart from that one hasn't the knowledge of the other sex. An experienced man might have seen through Ena during the engagement and been able to save his soul; David was far too green. And now that he has . . ."
"Seen through her?"
"No, met the girl who would be exactly right for him. Yes, it's very tough luck."
"There's no chance of a friendly divorce?"
"None. Ena would certainly never agree. She's got her bird in its cage, and it wouldn't be she who'd ever open the door. So David hasn't approached her on the topic at all. She'd only be more impossible than ever if she knew he was in love with someone else. I don't know why I'm telling you all this, Sheringham."
"You should drink beer instead of whiskey," Roger suggested.
"Perhaps that's it. Anyhow, I apologize for inflicting all this family history on you. It can't possibly interest you."
"On the contrary, all human relationships interest me, especially tangles. But I really am very sorry for your brother. Isn't it possible for anything to be done?"