"Nobody at all—absolutely. You know, they say—" She paused for emphasis.
Now, Gwendolyn's eyes grew suddenly round; her lips parted in surprise. They again!
"Yes?" encouraged Louise.
Lower—"They say she was just an ordinary country girl, pretty, and horribly poor, with a fair education, but no culture to speak of. She met him; he had money and fell in love with her; she married him. And, oh, then!" She chuckled.
"Made the money fly?"
The two were coming to settle themselves in chairs close to the side window.
"Not exactly. Haven't you heard what's the matter with her?"
Gwendolyn's face paled a little. There was something the matter with her mother?—her dear, beautiful, young mother! The clasped hands were pressed to her breast.
"Ambitious?" hazarded Louise, confidently.
"It's no secret. Everybody's laughing at her,—at the rebuffs she takes; the money she gives to charity (wedges, you understand); the quantities of dresses she buys; the way she slaps on the jewels. She's got the society bee in her bonnet!"