“But, alas, I go to Adele’s to-morrow,” she said.
“Yes, but so do I,” said Stephen. “She asked me this morning. I was wondering if you would drive me down, if you’re going in your car. Would there be room for you and Pepino and me?”
Lucia rapidly reviewed the situation. It was perfectly clear to her that Adele had asked Stephen, at the last moment, to fill Pepino’s place. But naturally she had not told him that, and Lucia determined not to do so either. It would spoil his pleasure (at least it would have spoiled hers) to know that.... And what a wonderful entry it would make for her—rather daring—to drive down alone with her lover. She could tell him about Pepino’s indisposition to-morrow, as if it had just occurred.
“Yes, Stephano, heaps of room,” she said. “Delighted. I’ll call for you, shall I, on my way down, soon after three.”
“Angelic,” he said. “What fun we shall have.”
And it is probable that Nemesis at that precise moment licked her dry lips. “Fun!” thought Nemesis.
Marcia Whitby was of the party. She went down in the morning, and lunched alone with Adele. Their main topic of conversation was obvious.
“I saw her announcement in the Morning Post,” said the infuriated Marcia, “that she had gone for a few days’ complete rest into the country, and naturally I thought I was safe. I was determined she shouldn’t come to my ball, and when I saw that, I thought she couldn’t. So out of sheer good nature I sent her a card, so that she could tell everybody she had been asked. Never did I dream that there was a possibility of her coming. Instead of which, she made the most conspicuous entry that she could have made. I believe she timed it: I believe she waited on the stairs till she saw we were going down to supper.”
“I wonder!” said Adele. “Genius, if it was that. She curtseyed seven times, too. I can’t do that without loud cracks from my aged knees.”
“And she stopped till the very end,” said Marcia. “She was positively the last to go. I shall never do a kind thing again.”