“Did you really fall in love with ‘Princess Lalla’?” Sally forced herself to ask coquettishly, fluttering her long lashes in the demure fashion which had proved so effective during her short career as a debutante.
“Absurd question!” Van Horne jeered softly. “Didn’t I convince you at the time? Listen, Sally, I almost never see you alone. Enid seems to have an antiquated leaning toward chaperonage.”
“Chaperons are ‘coming in’ again,” Sally laughed at him, hiding her distaste. “Mother adores being a leader of fashion, you know.”
“You’re so adorable tonight that I want to run away with you,” Van told her boldly. “But I’ll try to be content if you’ll promise me to come to my apartment alone for tea tomorrow. Do, Sally! I’ve something to tell you. Can you guess?”
She stiffened, every nerve on the defensive against him. But she remembered her resolution, and nodded slowly, her head tucked on one side, her eyes granting him a swift, shy upward glance.
“If you look at me like that again, I’ll kiss you right here on the dance floor!” Van threatened exultantly, as his arms tightened about her.
Enid’s pathetic gratitude to her for being “nice” to Van Horne strengthened the girl’s resolution to carry it through. She dressed with especial care for her tea date with Van the next afternoon, pinning the corsage of Parma violets which he had sent her on the full shawl collar of her Russian squirrel coat.
But before she left her room she took the ring David had given her from the box in which she had hidden it because the sight of it hurt her so intolerably, and kissed the shallow, flawed little sapphire with passionate grief.
“Goodby, David,” she whispered to the ring, but inconsistently she thrust it into her dark-blue and gray leather handbag. No matter what sort of ring Van gave her, it could never be so precious to her as this cheap little ring that David had given her to mark their betrothal.
She had visited Van Horne’s apartment once before with Enid, but as she gave the floor number to the elevator operator—it was one of the most exclusive and expensive of the new Park Avenue apartment houses—she thought she saw a gleam of amusement in the man’s eyes.