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Gwilt-Athelstan thus discloses, as if it were a trifle, something we should never learn at the table of Higbee though we ate his heavy dinners to the day of ultimate chaos.
"Lots of 'em takin' to trade nowadays; it's a smart sayin' there now that all the peers are marryin' actresses and all the peeresses goin' into business." Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan nodded little shocks of brilliance from her tiara and hungrily speared another oyster. "Only trouble is, it's such rotten hard work collectin' bills from their intimate friends; they simply won't pay."
"Oh, you wonderful, wonderful man, you!" she exclaimed, resolving to sit by some one less wonderful another time. Or there was Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan, like a motherly Venus rising from a sea of pink velvet and white silk lace, asserting that some one or other would never get within sniffing-distance of the Sandringham set.
Instantly Percival was on the other side of the portiere, and, before the other had groped his way to the dark corner where the door was, had recrossed the empty parlour and was safely in the hall. He made his way to the dining-room, where supper was under way. "Mr. Bines has seen a ghost," said the sharp-eyed Mrs. Drelmer. "Poor chap's only starved to death," said Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan.
Her brother, who had flung himself into a cushioned corner, spoke with the air of one who had reluctantly consented to be interviewed and who was anxious to be quoted correctly: "Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan is all right.
Over coffee and chartreuse in the drawing-room there was more general talk of money and marriage, and of one for the other. "And so he married money," concluded Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan of one they had discussed. "Happy marriage!" Shepler called out. "No; money talks! and this time, on my word, now, it made you want to put on those thick sealskin ear-muffs.
Miss Milbrey wondered somewhat; but her mind was easy, for her resolution had been taken. Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan extended her invitation to the young people, who accepted joyfully. "Come down and camp with us, and help Phim keep the batteries of his autos run out.
She's a commonplace girl, with lots of mannerisms to unlearn, but she's pretty and sweet and teachable." "And she'll learn a lot from Fred that she doesn't know now," finished that young man's sister from the foot of the stairway. Back at their hotel Psyche Bines was saying: "Isn't it queer about Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan? We've read so much about her in the papers.
Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan was instantly sympathetic. "Only I can't take sides, you know, my dear, and young Milbrey will think me shabby if he doesn't have first go; but I'll be impartial; Milbrey shall take her in, and Mauburn shall be at her other side, and may God have mercy on her soul!
Gwilt-Athelstan is truly a personage, and the best people on more than one continent do not become unduly provoked at being made to wait for her. Those less than the very best frankly esteem it a privilege. Yet the great lady is not careless of engagements, and the wait is never prolonged. Mrs.
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