Said Wilbur as they drove away from the house—­“Barring a few moments of agony in the society of my tormentor, Mrs. Parsons, I had a pleasant evening.  They were obviously potting their old acquaintance in one pie, but to my thinking it was preferable to being sandwiched in between some of their new friends whom we do not know and who know nothing of us.  It was a little evident, but on the whole agreeable.”

Selma, shrouded in her wraps, made no reply at first.  Suddenly she exclaimed, with, fierceness, “I consider it rank impertinence.  It was as much as to say that they do not think us good enough to meet their new friends.”

Littleton, who still found difficulty in remembering that his wife would not always enjoy the humor of an equivocal situation, was sorry that he had spoken.  “Come, Selma,” he said, “there’s no use in taking that view of the matter.  You would not really care to meet the other people.”

“Yes, I would, and she knows it.  I shall never enter her house again.”

“As to that, my dear, the probabilities are that we shall not be asked for some time.  You know perfectly well that, in the nature of things, your intimacy with Mrs. Williams must languish now that she lives at a distance and has new surroundings.  She may continue to be very fond of you, but you can’t hope to see very much of her, unless I am greatly mistaken in her character.”

“She is a shallow little worldling,” said Selma, with measured intensity.

“But you knew that already.  The fact that she invited us to dinner and did not ignore our existence altogether shows that she likes us and wishes to continue the friendship.  I’ve no doubt she believes that she is going to see a great deal of us, and you should blame destiny and the force of fashionable circumstances, not Flossy, if you drift apart.”

“She invited us because she wished to show off her new house.”

“Not altogether.  You musn’t be too hard on her.”

Selma moved her shoulders impatiently, and there was silence for some moments broken only by the tapping of her foot.  Then she asked, “How nearly have you finished the plans for the Parsons house?”

Wilbur’s brow clouded under cover of the night.  He hesitated an instant before replying, “I am sorry to say that Mrs. Parsons and I do not seem to get on very well together.  Her ideas and mine on the subject of architecture are wide apart, as I have intimated to you once or twice.  I have modified my plans again, and she has made airy suggestions which from my point of view are impossible.  We are practically at loggerheads, and I am trying to make up my mind what I ought to do.”

There was a wealth of condensation in the word ‘impossible’ which brought back unpleasantly to Selma Pauline’s use of the same word in connection with the estimate which had been formed of Miss Bailey.  “There can be only one thing to do in the end,” she said, “if you can’t agree.  Mrs. Parsons, of course, must have her house as she wishes it.  It is her house, Wilbur.”