I swallowed hard, to keep the sobs back. I’m never very strong or well, but now I felt broken, ready to die. I was glad when I heard the music stop in the ballroom.
“There!” I said. “The two dances you asked me to sit out with you are over. I’m sure you’re engaged for the next.”
“Yes, Imp, I am.”
“To Di?”
“No, I have Number 13 with her.”
“Thirteen! Unlucky number.”
“Any number is lucky that gives me a chance with her. The next one, coming now, is with Mrs. George Allendale.”
“Oh, yes, the actor manager’s wife. She goes everywhere; and Lord Mountstuart likes theatrical celebrities. This house ought to be very serious and political, but we have every sort of creature—provided it’s an amusing, or successful, or good-looking one. By the way, used Maxine de Renzie to come here, when she was acting in London at George Allendale’s theatre? That was before Di and I arrived on the scene, you remember.”
“I remember. Oh, yes, she came here. It was in this house I met her first, off the stage, I believe.”
“What a sweet memory! Wasn’t Mrs. George awfully jealous of her husband when he had such a fascinating beauty for his leading lady?”