At the first sight and speech of Hero she felt herself half disarmed. The perfect sincerity, the clear nobility of nature, that shone in Hero’s face, put every thought of vulgar jealousy instantly to shame. This woman might be a rival, and a formidable one, in the sense that a mother or a bachelor friend is the rival of a selfish wife, but she would never be a rival in any other sense.
“Dear Lady Alistair, I am afraid I have been rather slow in calling, but we have been abroad, and when we got back I found I had really nothing to wear. What do you do for your autumn hats?”
One glance at the overdressed and bejewelled little woman had taught Hero the way to her friendship. Once lured on to the ground of millinery Molly became interested and animated before she knew it, and Stuart found himself provided with a good excuse for slipping out of the room.
The new Lady Alistair had expected to feel embarrassed in talking to the first lady she had ever met, and she had prepared to carry off her embarrassment by insolence. It was a surprise, and an agreeable one, to find herself chatting easily and pleasantly with the new-comer on topics that she thoroughly understood. Instead of being schooled and patronized, it was she whose superior knowledge of fashions and fashionable shops enabled her to impart information, and almost to condescend.
Hero was not contented with this opening success. She wanted to be Molly’s friend, and not merely to be friends with Molly.
“What a clever idea to take this little house!” she said, as soon as the opportunity served. “And what a charming nest you have made of it!”
“It is rather poky,” said Lady Alistair, not quite sure whether her visitor was speaking sincerely.
“Oh, but how cosy you must find it! Everybody loves cottages, but then so few of us can afford to live in them. My father, for instance—of course, as a working professional man he is obliged to consider the opinion of his patients.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Molly assented. It made her quite gracious to think that Miss Vanbrugh recognized her own social inferiority.
“I should not wonder if you set the fashion,” Hero pursued. “I am sure there must be lots of people who are tired of flats.”