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Lady Harrowfield hates children, and Fordy made some terrible remarks about her wig last time." "I wish he would do it again," said Hector. "She took the skin off every one the whole way through lunch." "But Colonel Lowerby told me she was one of the cleverest women in London!" exclaimed Theodora; "and surely it is not very clever just to be bitter and spiteful!"
"Lady Harrowfield wants to begin her rubber." Barbara, knowing what this move meant, and blushing for her cousin's rudeness, nervously introduced Theodora to her. "How d' do," said Mildred, staring over her head. "Don't detain Lord Wensleydown, please, because Lady Harrowfield hates to be kept waiting." Theodora rose and smiled, while she said to Barbara: "I am rather tired.
"But you know how she can be now and then perfectly annihilating to unfortunate strangers." Hector's finely chiselled lips shut like a vise. "We shall see," he said. "And who else have you got? None of the Harrowfield-Devlyn crew, I hope " "Hector, how strange you are! I thought you and Lady Harrowfield were the greatest friends, so of course I asked her.
"Almost wanting," was his last comment to himself as the ladies left the dining-room. Then Theodora forced herself to speak to chatter to a now complacent group of women who gathered round her. Those emeralds, and the way the diamonds were set round them, proved too strong an attraction for even Lady Harrowfield to keep far away.
Brown?" he said, and she gladly acquiesced and started with him. If she had been a practised coquette she could not have done anything more to fan the flame of Hector's passion. Lady Harrowfield had detained him on the top of the steps, and he saw her go off with the Crow and was unable to rush after them. And when at last he was free he felt almost drunk with passion.
And if towards two in the morning, or when she lost at bridge, her face did remind on-lookers of a hideous colored mask of death and old age one can't have everything in life; and Lady Harrowfield had already obtained more than the lion's share.
And she smiled one of her adorable smiles which melted the heart of every one else in the room. But of Lady Harrowfield she made an enemy for life. The venomous woman reddened violently under her paint while she looked this upstart through and through. But Theodora was quite unconscious of her anger.
Brown" were announced, and the whole party turned to look at them, while Lady Harrowfield tittered, and whispered almost audibly to her neighbor: "These are the creatures Florence insisted upon my giving an invitation to last night. I did it for her sake, of course, so wretchedly poor she is, dear Florence, and she hopes to make a good thing out of them. Look at the man!" she added.
"The ball at Harrowfield House, I expect, to meet the King of Guatemala," she said, knowing Lady Harrowfield was Florence Devlyn's cousin. "That is it," said Theodora. "Then you must dance with Hector my brother," she said. She launched his name suddenly; she wanted to see what effect it would have on Theodora. "He is sure to be there, and he dances divinely."
The other women had been indifferent or mocking or amused, and Lady Harrowfield had let it be seen she would have no mercy. Her comments had been vitriolic. Hector and Theodora had not gone out of sight, or been any different to the others; only he had never left her, and there could be no mistaking the devotion in his face. For the whole day Sir Patrick had more or less taken charge of Josiah.
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