He simply declined,
and he went out somewhere else. So you see he is n't writing letters. I
don't know where he can have gone; perhaps he has gone to the theatre.
I know it is n't proper to go to the theatre on Sunday evening; but
they say charity begins at home, and as Gordon's does n't begin at home,
perhaps it does n't begin anywhere. I told him that if he would n't come
with me I would come alone, and he said I might do as I chose--that he
was not in a humor for making visits. I wanted to come to you very much;
I had been thinking about it all day; and I am so fond of a visit like
this in the evening, without being invited. Then I thought perhaps you
had a salon--does n't every one in Paris have a salon? I tried to have a
salon in New York, only Gordon said it would n't do. He said it was n't
in our manners. Is this a salon to-night, Mrs. Vivian? Oh, do say it
is; I should like so much to see Captain Lovelock in a salon! By good
fortune he happened to have been dining with us; so I told him he must
bring me here. I told you I would explain, Captain Lovelock," she added,
"and I hope you think I have made it clear."
The Captain had turned very red during this wandering discourse. He sat
pulling his beard and shifting the position which, with his stalwart
person, he had taken up on a little gilded chair--a piece of furniture
which every now and then gave a delicate creak.
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