“I only took this house for two months and the time is nearly over,” said Audrey.
“Then I shall come and see you in London, and buy bonnets,” laughed Sir Harry. “I’ll set up my whole family in headgear, and you shall teach me to have a nice taste in hats.”
“I shall not be there either,” she answered shortly. “Really, I am nothing but a figure-head there. It is a clever Frenchwoman named Laure who does all the work.”
To all this Durley Diggs, who remained near them, listened with attentive ears. The young baronet was not to be put off.
“You won’t shake me off so easily as that, Madame,” said he, with the daring of youth and good spirits. “Wherever you go I shall find you out, and as long as you will allow me to continue your acquaintance, I shall show myself grateful for the privilege.”
She could not help relaxing into a smile at these words, which were uttered in too boyish and withal courteous a manner to be displeasing.
But she did not hold out any hopes, or give him any invitation, and the last glance he gave at her face revealed to him plainly the fact that she was ill at ease.
It was, as usual, very late before all the guests left the house, and Mrs. Webster was too sleepy to talk much that night.
But when she and Audrey met at breakfast on the following morning, she combated most strenuously the decision of the younger lady to give up both her new acquaintances and the business which they supported so royally. On the contrary, everything she had seen and heard on the previous evening convinced Mrs. Webster that there was nothing serious in Audrey’s objections to her new mode of life, except that natural disinclination of a woman with a heavy heart to be in a circle where so much gaiety went on.
“Perfectly harmless gaiety, as far as I could see,” went on the good lady, who had enjoyed her little talks with barons and baronets, men of note in the great world, and women who, if somehow they were a little less satisfactory than the men whose names they bore, were beautifully dressed and all attractive in one way or another.