" And her smiling
lip twitched a little threateningly, as she concluded the silent
monologue. "I suppose she thinks I ought to be glad enough she
asked Walter!"
Walter was, in fact, rather noticeable. He was not Mildred's
only guest to wear a short coat and to appear without gloves; but
he was singular (at least in his present surroundings) on account
of a kind of coiffuring he favoured, his hair having been shaped
after what seemed a Mongol inspiration. Only upon the top of the
head was actual hair perceived, the rest appearing to be nudity.
And even more than by any difference in mode he was set apart by
his look and manner, in which there seemed to be a brooding,
secretive and jeering superiority and this was most vividly
expressed when he felt called upon for his loud, short, lop-sided
laugh. Whenever he uttered it Alice laughed, too, as loudly as
she could, to cover it.
"Well," he said. "How long we goin' to stand here? My feet are
sproutin' roots."
Alice took his arm, and they began to walk aimlessly through the
rooms, though she tried to look as if they had a definite
destination, keeping her eyes eager and her lips parted;--people
had called jovially to them from the distance, she meant to
imply, and they were going to join these merry friends.
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