miliation. Since money meant something to young Rountree, Phil possessed means to rehabilitate himself.
He marched toward the Tavern with his partner, seizing Jay's arm familiarly as they paraded past the peopled verandas. Everyone should see that he had been Jay Rountree's partner. A few later might learn the disastrous scores; but most of this swell gallery would know only what they now saw. So Phil felt his assurance returning. He was getting here something for his money and he wanted Jay to have something, too.
"My boy," he promised heartily, patting Jay on the back as though in congratulation at their golf score, "you will lose nothing by this morning. Not for playing partner to Phil Metten. No! I said it."
Mrs. Metten rushed down from the steps to greet them. Her girls were not in sight. "Ruby and Rosita, they are horseback riding," mamma announced loudly, "with Mrs. Rountree, of New York."
Jay went up to his room and, from his own, opened the door of Lida's where the sun, cleared of its morning haze, was pouring in yellow and warm. There was no sound; no motion; no ordinary proof of presence; yet, at the opening of the door, more liveness in this room than merely the light of the sun.
He had believed that his wife was riding; now he knew she had returned. There was something electric in the air of the room. Lida was here; but he did not at first see her.
He would not test his impression by calling to her; he would discover her, so he entered and came upon her in the startling way she liked. Black and white and crimson contrasted in the yellow sunlight. Lida lay at full length
