"'Tis merely the accident of birth, Major Delrose," she said, carelessly; "had I been cradled in the land of the Sultan—the land of trousers—they would fit into my life as my gown by Worth does a present."
And she was so more than lovely as she spoke, and her frock of navy blue velvet trimmed with fox fur, small bonnet blending in hue with her gown, with scarlet geraniums and strings, all becoming to her sweet womanliness, her perfect figure, lithe as a young fawn and rounded as a Venus, held the men's gaze, while the women bit their lips with envy. For we repeat that envy is the motive power that moves and sways their little world, and though they will band themselves together to pull the pedestal from under the feet of a more favoured sister, there would be mutiny in the band did one display a charm.
But Vaura, ever connected in the mind of Mrs. Haughton with Trevalyon, and the wish never dying in her breast to have him at her feet, hence her question, which she would much prefer not to have asked in the presence of Delrose, but, accustomed to obey impulse, she said:
"And Captain Trevalyon, Miss Vernon, what of him? Will he come for the ball, or has he gone to visit his hidden wife of Truth and the News; sly fellow that he is?"
Her tone was too eager to please Delrose. "Confound the fellow, I must lose no time," he thought, savagely, as Vaura replied, laconically:
"Sir Lionel Trevalyon will be here for the ball."
"Trevalyon to be here to-night! You never told me, Vaura."
"I have not had an opportunity, dear uncle," she said, taking his arm, with a "We shall meet again at dinner" to madame; as they left the room she continued: "He bid me tell you, dear, that he comes after dinner with three unbidden guests, and that he wishes that the Hall guests may learn from their words of the ingredients of a dish of scandal, so that they will tell it to the London world!"
"It is of his hidden wife, I presume. Yes, of her ingredients he can now tell; she is his wife. Of the woman previous to the altar knot man knows naught. She is masked!"
"Society is a fencing school, dear uncle; we all have our masks and foils."