She held out her hand to him with a hasty, excited gesture. She was
painfully conscious that he had but to lift his eyes to see the
_Fatima_ hanging on the opposite wall of the gallery, and she
instinctively felt that she must draw his attention away.
"How do you do, Mr. Herman," she said, with eager warmth. "Is Mrs.
Herman with you?"
She moved half around him as she spoke, as if compelled by the shifting
of the crowd to change her position; and while she shook hands managed
to bring herself almost face to the picture, so that his back was
toward it.
"No," he answered, "she never comes to these things if she can possibly
help it. I hear your husband has outdone himself on this exhibition."
Edith looked about despairingly for Arthur. She felt herself unequal to
the emergency, and longed for his clever wits to contrive some means of
escape from the cruel dilemma in which his act had placed her and his
friend. Indignation, shame, and sorrow filled her heart. She recognized
that Arthur had not told her the truth in regard to Ninitta. The dread
and the suspicion which she had felt on the night of the dinner
returned to her with tenfold force. But the greatest triumph of modern
civilization is the power it has bestowed upon women of concealing
their feelings. The pressing need of the moment was to show to Herman a
smiling and untroubled face, and to avoid arousing his suspicion that
anything was wrong.
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