She glanced in
a glass, but that was all; she might have been tidier, but not easily
more animated, confident, and alert. She had reached the landing when
she returned and collected all the cards which she had been trying to
arrange; they made quite a pack; and Rachel laughed as she took them
downstairs with her.
Mrs. Venables sat in solitary stiffness on the highest chair she had
been able to find; neither Sybil nor Vera was in attendance; a tableful
of light literature was at her elbow, but Mrs. Venables sat with folded
hands.
"This is too good of you!" cried Rachel, greeting her in a manner
redeemed from hypocrisy by a touch of irresistible irony. "You know my
inexperience, and you have come to tell me things, have you not? You
could not have come at a better time. How _do_ you fit in twenty-six
people at one table? I wanted to have two at each end, and it can't be
done!"
Mrs. Venables suppressed a smile suggestive of some unconscious humor in
these remarks, but sat more upright than ever in her chair, with a hard
light in the bright brown eyes that stared serenely into Rachel's own.
"I cannot say I came to offer you my assistance, Mrs.
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