Viviette

Copyright, 1916 By AINSLER MAGAZINE COMPANY
Copyright, 1916 By JOHN LANE COMPANY

Dick, said Viviette, ought to go about in skins like a primitive man.
Katherine Holroyd looked up from her needlework. She was a gentle, fair-haired woman of thirty, with demure blue eyes, which regarded the girl with a mingling of pity, protection, and amusement.
My dear, she said, whenever I see a pretty girl fooling about with a primitive man I always think of a sweet little monkey I once knew, who used to have great sport with a lyddite shell. Her master kept it on his table as a paper-weight, and no one knew it was loaded. One day she hit the shell in the wrong place--and they're still looking for the monkey. Don't think Dick is the empty shell.
Whereupon she resumed her work, and for a few moments the click of thimble and needle alone broke the summer stillness. Viviette lay idly on a long garden chair admiring the fit of a pair of dainty tan shoes, which she twiddled with graceful twists of the ankles some five feet from her nose. At Mrs. Holroyd's remark she laughed after the manner of one quite contented with herself--a low, musical laugh, in harmony with the blue June sky and the flowering chestnuts and the song of the thrushes.
My intentions with regard to Dick are strictly honourable, she remarked. We've been engaged for the last eleven years, and I still have his engagement ring. It cost three-and-sixpence.
I only want to warn you, dear, said Mrs. Holroyd. Anyone can see that Dick is in love with you, and if you don't take care you'll have Austin falling in love with you too.
Viviette laughed again. But he has already fallen! I don't think he knows it yet; but he has. It's great fun being a woman, isn't it, dear?
I don't know that I've ever found it so, Katherine replied with a sigh. She was a widow, and had loved her husband, and her sky was still tinged with grey.
Viviette, quick to catch the sadness in the voice, made no reply, but renewed the contemplation of her shoe-tips.