Page:Dark Hester.djvu/147

must pay the penalty.’ Walking away to the steps, she descended to the lower room.

‘Shall we really go on, Clive?’ said Monica. ‘It was a mere slip of the tongue.’

He had been looking after his wife and as his eyes came back to his mother she saw that they were hardly aware of her. ‘Of course we’ll go on.’ So they went on and Monica and Ingpen swept up twelve tricks.

When the slaughter was accomplished, Clive jumped up and went to the steps. ‘It’s all over! Come back!’ He stood smiling down at his wife, again almost quizzically. So united were they that he could venture to tease Hester out of her bad temper.

And indeed, from where she sat, Monica saw that, as she appeared from below, she lifted her face to her husband, as if with a murmur of compunction.

‘Better luck this time,’ said Ingpen. He was shuffling now, with lean, skilful hands. He wore an odd ring, a little too large for him; it slipped forward when he dealt and Monica fastened her eyes upon it so that she need not look at Hester and Clive; a flat gold ring circled by two broad bands of black enamel.