On such occasions as the present Mrs. Chandos hated her eldest daughter, who had a sharp and utterly fearless tongue.
"Oh, you do not understand," she began excitedly.
"I see I've come in for a dress-rehearsal," observed Mrs. Lepell, hoping to smooth matters.
"Borrowed plumes! secondhand clothes. Ch-a-ah!" sneered Blanche, in a shrill, discordant key. She breathed so hard that all her beads jingled, and her husband retreated precipitately into the verandah.
Was Blanche going to have a row with her mother?
Oh, she was so fond of rows! Rows commencing with shrill vituperation, screaming abuse, and concluding (in cases of defeat) in hysterics and collapse.
"I think you must have come out with the Trevors," continued Mrs. Lepell, as she turned to Verona, "I see they were in the Egypt."
"Yes, and I met them before; we were at the same hotel in Cannes for three months."
"Then you know the Riviera?"
"Yes, we generally spent the winter there—or in Florence."