William Bannister, that
discerning youth, took to her at once. Kirk liked the neat way she
moved about the studio, his heart being still sore at the performance
of one of her predecessors, who had upset and put a substantial foot
through his masterpiece, that same "Ariadne in Naxos" which Lora Delane
Porter had criticised on the occasion of her first visit to the studio.
Ruth, for her part, was delighted with Mamie.
As for Steve, though as an outside member of the firm he cannot be
considered to count, he had long ago made up his mind about her. Some
time before, when he had found it impossible for him to be in her
presence, still less to converse with her, without experiencing a warm,
clammy, shooting sensation and a feeling of general weakness similar to
that which follows a well-directed blow at the solar plexus, he had
come to the conclusion that he must be in love. The furious jealousy
which assailed him on seeing her embraced by and embracing a stout
person old enough to be her father convinced him of this.
The discovery that the stout man actually was her father's brother
relieved his mind to a certain extent, but the episode left him shaken.
He made up his mind to propose at once and get it over. When Mamie
joined the garrison of No. 90 a year later the dashing feat was still
unperformed. There was that about Mamie which unmanned Steve.
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