She is desperately grieved that she cannot accept my invitation to join us.

Of course, I knew the old dear couldn't.

And we are to meet her afterwards." The little lunch party was, on the whole, a success.

To the conversation Paula contributed the larger part, Barry doing his best to second her.
But in spite of his heroic efforts, his mind would escape him, far away to the sunny Athabasca plains, and the gleaming river and the smooth slipping canoe, and then with swift transition to the little British plot in the cemetery at Boulogne.
At such times, Paula, reading his face, would momentarily falter in her gay talk, only to begin again with renewed vivacity.

On one topic, however, she had no difficulty in holding Barry's attention.