She seemed to hear what the couples

Halfway home, a weakness of loneliness overcame her, and sheseated herself under the trees near the Rond Point. Lines ofmotors and carriages were beginning to animate the convergingthoroughfares, streaming abreast, crossing, winding in and outof each other in a tangle of hurried pleasure-seeking. Shecaught the light on jewels and shirt-fronts and hard bored eyesemerging from dim billows of fur and velvet. She seemed to hear what the couples were saying to each other, she pictured thedrawing-rooms, restaurants, dance-halls they were hastening to,the breathless routine that was hurrying them along, as Time,the old vacuum-cleaner, swept them away with the dust of theircarriage-wheels. And again the loneliness vanished in a senseof release .... 　　At the corner of the Place de la Concorde she stopped,recognizing a man in evening dress who was hailing a taxi. 　　Their eyes met, and Nelson Vanderlyn came forward. He was thelast person she cared to run across, and she shrank backinvoluntarily. What did he know, what had he guessed, of hercomplicity in his wife's affairs? No doubt Ellie had blabbed itall out by this time; she was just as likely to confide herlove-affairs to Nelson as to anyone else, now that theBockheimer prize was landed. 　　"Well--well--well--so I've caught you at it! Glad to see you,Susy, my dear." She found her hand cordially clasped inVanderlyn's, and his round pink face bent on her with all itsold urbanity. Did nothing matter, then, in this world she wasfleeing from, did no one love or hate or remember? 　　"No idea you were in Paris--just got here myself," Vanderlyncontinued, visibly delighted at the meeting. "Look here, don'tsuppose you're out of a job this evening by any chance, andwould come and cheer up a lone bachelor, eh? No? You are? 　　Well, that's luck for once! I say, where shall we go? One ofthe places where they dance, I suppose? Yes, I twirl the lightfantastic once in a while myself. Got to keep up with thetimes! Hold on, taxi! Here--I'll drive you home first, andwait while you jump into your toggery. Lots of time." As hesteered her toward the carriage she noticed that he had a goutylimp, and pulled himself in after her with difficulty. 　　"Mayn't I come as I am, Nelson, I don't feel like dancing.