Take Ann Lovelace, for instance, floating by at that minute in one of the newest dances. She made you feel as though your smartest clothes came from Woolworth's, yet she hadn't been able to get Arthur away, though she had tried hard enough.
Ann raised her eyes as she was passing, and paused a moment. They were light grey eyes, very clear and tranquil.
"How well you're looking to-night, Violet," she said kindly. "Of course, those exquisite pearls are a joy in themselves, but it isn't only the pearls, is it?" she murmured with a smile of comprehension.
Ann had a heart-shaped face, beautifully featured, and framed in light golden hair. She was a niece of the Duchess of Axminster—a favourite niece, it was said. She looked the part. Slender, witty, always charmingly dressed—she had an air of fragile grace, every glimpse of which Violet detested because it made her feel like a farmer's daughter in comparison. And she had an uneasy doubt as to what lay behind that appearance of friendliness which Ann had shown her since their meeting at Friars Halt a fortnight before.
Kitty Walsh could have told her, but Kitty was no mischief maker. She was, indeed, one of the very few people in the room that evening who thought that her cousin was not making a bad match. For Kitty rather liked Violet, though the liking did not extend to Violet's mother—nor to Ronald Mills, the young man who helped Mrs. Finch run the night-clubs that had once been so incredibly profitable to her.
"Cleaned everybody out?" Kitty asked her uncle as he suddenly appeared beside her.
Colonel Walsh was known to be a formidable bridge player He smiled a little. Kitty could always get that tribute from him. "What are you staying on here for?" he asked genially. "You look as though you belonged in the schoolroom, you know." And he tweaked an end of the ribbon she wore round her long, full silk gown.
"Ah, my looks are deceptive—like Ann's!" she said lightly, and then coloured with vexation. The last words had slipped out.
"How you do dislike Ann!" her uncle teased, But his eyes were a little wistful as he glanced across at Ann's lovely figure in its dress of silver and jade.
"I do," Kitty said frankly. "She never gives herself away; and I hate people who never give themselves away!" She made a little face at him as she changed the subject. "I suppose there's no chance of Aunt Caroline altering her mind and turning up?" she queried as she caught sight of her aunt's intimate friend coming towards them.
Colonel Walsh shook his head. His sister had refused to come. The Colonel regretted the engagement, too. But he was no tyrant, though he had cut his eldest son off with a shilling—or, to be strictly accurate, with a hundred pounds.
"Your aunt fears that Arthur's making a sad mistake. So does Ambrose. So do I. But Arthur's been frank and straightforward about the whole thing, so I don't intend to interfere."
Colonel Walsh and Kitty were close confidantes.
"What's the mother like?" he asked now, glancing that way. "Looks like a respectable elderly governess. But what's she really like?"
"I detested her when I spent those three days with her, you know—when the flat had to have a new system of lighting put in."
The Colonel nodded.
"Do you mean she was offensive?" He bristled.
"Oh, dear, no! On the contrary. She was awfully pleasant to me. But I don't think I've ever disliked any one quite so much without any reason."
"Except Ann!" he chaffed back.
"Ann!" she said under her breath. "Violet Finch mayn't be all you would like Arthur's wife to be," she continued softly, "but she's ever so much better than Ann Lovelace. Ann's selfish. She has a horrid temper. You remember that we were at Bedington together, she and I. Oh, yes, she was 'Head Girl' in her last year. But none the less there were plenty of others who felt just as I did. Ann always intended to be 'Head Girl,' and so, of course, she pulled it off."
"I think your aunt hopes she will still draw Arthur away from Violet Finch."
"Not a chance!" Kitty said at once. "Arthur adores Violet. Absolutely!" There was a something in her young voice that made her uncle look away. It sounded like very far-off, very repressed pain.
"Anyway, those pearls that Ann helped her choose look superb ones," the Colonel said hurriedly. "On loan to-night, I take it, as they're to be his wedding present?"
"Yes, they're lent to her till then. She asked Ann to help her choose them." Kitty did not add that the two strings of pearls in question had been a staggering extravagance, even for so rich a lover as was Arthur Walsh.
Lady Norton came up to them just then. She was the close friend of her aunt whom Kitty had noticed a few moments before.
The Colonel soon went back to the card tables and Lady Norton drew Kitty down into a chair beside her. "I must say the cocktails are worth coming for," she said with a grin, "as one would expect. But who is the handsome man hovering around Mrs. Finch?"
"That's Ronald Mills. He's a sort of manager of hers. Looks after her night-clubs for her and so on..."
The other grunted and patted some fresh rouge on her cheek. "Funny relations you're going to have, my child!" she said frankly.
Kitty moved restlessly in her chair. "I think that's ungenerous!" she said warmly. "Arthur isn't marrying to please us. Why should he? He's most tremendously in love. And why not? Violet has all sorts of sterling qualities. She'll make him a splendid wife. He's been inclined to drift, you know, to take life easy...Violet's a good fighter. She'll make him do his bit. And that's what Arthur needs."
"You mean to tell me you like the girl?" Lady Norton demanded incredulously. "Your aunt considers her impossible."
"But she's not impossible," Kitty said firmly. "She is not, really! She's very outspoken—and forthright. Uncle will love that in her. She's unselfish, too. She took no end of trouble when I lost my sapphire pendant while I stayed over a week-end with them. And it was Violet who finally unearthed it, caught fast in a curtain fringe, just before I left."
"And do you also like her mother?" demanded Lady Norton sarcastically. Kitty was silent.
"I wonder what Ann's mother, Lady Rosemary, would say about her," Lady Norton went on meditatively—and meaningly. "She was, you know, the cause of Ann's step-brother shooting himself. Those night-clubs of hers were sinks of iniquity. I wanted to go to one, out of curiosity. But we were stationed at Malta while they were the rage. And now, of course, they've gone out completely. I hear that Mrs. Finch won't have a bean left when they're finally wound up." Lady Norton added with relish.
Kitty fidgeted silently. She did not care to be connected even distantly with Mrs. Finch. And, as another partner came up to release her, she took good care to keep away from her aunt's friends for the rest of the evening.
CHAPTER III.
Pearls Can Be at Once Very Useful and Very Dangerous.
ON the following evening Violet was playing bridge at Colonel Walsh's house in Grosvenor Square. He was presenting the house to Arthur as a wedding gift, together with a separate fund for its maintenance. Violet was very much to the fore on this occasion. A trifle self-assertive, and more than a trifle dictatorial.
But Arthur looked delighted to be allowed to breathe the same air as his divinity. He played badly. Violet, as always, played extremely well, and won quite a nice little sum from Ann Lovelace and her partner.
Ann handed over a couple of notes with a smile. "Nothing can resist you to-night, Violet. You ought to be