Mrs. Price in common with many others had heard of Marie Leroy. But though others in hearing had not heeded, Mrs. Price took it as a personal affront.
"Then it is your fault," she snarled. "You could have had him if you had wanted. Don't tell me. He was in love with you. I could see it."
Fanny was looking at the ocean. A white sail was fainting in the distance. Like it, a hope she had had was fading away. She watched it go. It had been very fair, very dear, more dear and fair than any she had known. But it was going. It was out of reach and now out of sight. She could not beckon to it.
"What are you staring at?" Mrs. Price asked.
"A sail out there," the girl answered.
Then presently mother and daughter passed into an adjoining corridor where they had rooms.
CHAPTER IX
FANNY CHANGES HER CLOTHES
FANNY did not appear that evening. In search of her Annandale prowled vainly around. But on the morrow he ran into her on the beach.
It was still as fine as powder. To have found elbow room there a few days previous you would have had to go out to sea. Now, in and on it children were making hillocks and holes. Near them a few groups of older people loitered. But the coryphées that had danced there were migrating. Already the Rockingham, a big hotel which faced the beach, had closed. Sweet-and-twenty was packing her trunk.