Ignoring Violet, Aurelia nodded at Leilah.
“I was here the other day, did they tell you?”
She turned and with blithe impertinence looked her sister up and down.
“Don’t be so ordinary as to ask a girl where she has been. If you are inquisitive, ask where she is going, and, if you ask me, I’ll tell you. I am going to become——”
“Yes, yes.” Violet impatiently interrupted. “We’ve heard all that. You’re going to become a star. I know what kind too—a fallen star.”
A fresher smile bubbled about Aurelia’s delicious mouth.
“It pleases your ladyship to jest. I am to become the Princess Farnese!”
“Merciful heavens!” Violet exclaimed, turning as she spoke to Leilah. “She’ll go in to dinner before me!”
But Leilah who, after a word of greeting to Aurelia, had, from the table before her, taken and reopened the Paramitas, perhaps did not hear.