United States or Malaysia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And where are you all going afterwards?" Craven and Braybrooke got up to greet two famous members of the "old guard," Lady Wrackley and Mrs. Ackroyde. Lady Sellingworth and Miss Van Tuyn turned in their chairs, and for a moment there was a little disjointed conversation, in the course of which it came out that this quartet, too, was bound for the Shaftesbury Theatre.
Beryl Van Tuyn should really be more careful. She grows quite reckless. And Adela Sellingworth is so tall and unmistakable. I do hope nobody saw her." "I'm afraid scores of people did!" "No, no! I mean people she knows women especially." "I don't think she would care." "Her friends would care for her!" retorted Braybrooke, almost severely. "To retire from life is all very well.
In the street he found himself by the side of Miss Van Tuyn, behind Lady Sellingworth and Ambrose Jennings, who were really a living caricature as they proceeded through the night towards Shaftesbury Avenue.
So few people will help. And those that do well, they get asked for more. I'll I'll manage somehow. It's all my own fault. I must try to " Then Lady Sellingworth turned round. Her white face was very grave, almost stern, like the face of one who was thinking with concentration. "I'm ready to try to do what I can, Beryl," she said. "But there's only one way I can think of.
"If I remember rightly, she said that Lady Sellingworth was the very last woman one had expected to do such a thing, that she was one of the old guard, whose motto is 'never give up, that she went on expecting, and tacitly demanding, the love and admiration which most men only give with sincerity to young women long after she was no more young and had begun to lose her looks.
Francis Braybrooke came up. Lady Sellingworth was busy, greeting and being greeted. Once more she made part of the regiment. But the ranks were broken. There was no review order here. Only for an instant had she been aware of formality, of the "eyes right" atmosphere when she had entered the room. Then the old voices hummed about her. And she saw the well-known and experienced eyes examining her.
He began to wish that he had never gone to Berkeley Square on that autumn afternoon, had never met the two women who were beginning to complicate his life. For a moment he thought of dropping them both. But had not one of them already dropped him? He would certainly not call again in Berkeley Square. If Lady Sellingworth did not ask him to go there he would not attempt to see her.
"Oh, I am far too old, and far too fixed in my habits to make any drastic change in my way of life," said Lady Sellingworth, looking out of the window. "You didn't like your little experience the other night enough to repeat it?" said Miss Van Tuyn. As she spoke Craven saw her eyes gazing at him in the shadow. They looked rather hard and searching, he thought.
And then at once they went into the restaurant up the broad steps. And Craven noticed that everyone they passed by glanced at Lady Sellingworth. At that moment he felt very proud of her friendship. He even felt a touch of romance in it, of a strange and unusual romance far removed from the sort of thing usually sung of by poets and written of by novelists. "She is unusual!" he thought.
She saw that he flushed slightly. But she persisted in her invitation. She had lost her head in Glebe Place, but now she would retrieve the situation. Vanity, fear, an obscure jealousy, and something else pushed her on. And she beckoned again. She saw Craven lean over and say something to Lady Sellingworth. Then he got up and came down the room towards her, threading his way among the many tables.
Word Of The Day