"It will, by the time we're through," replied Mathilda, once more ascending the steps.
Chapter Two
Paula Herriard did not arrive at the Manor until after seven, when everyone else was changing for dinner. Her appearance on the scene was advertised, even to those in remote bedrooms, by the unusual amount of commotion heard downstairs. Paula's entrances always commanded attention. It was not that she deliberately staged them: merely, her personality was rather overpowering, her movements as impetuous as her vivid little face. In fact, Mathilda said with gentle malice, she seemed to have been born with the hallmarks of a great emotional actress.
She was several years younger than her brother Stephen, and resembled him scarcely at all. She was pretty, in the style made popular by Burne Jones, with thick, springy hair, a short, full upper lip, and dark eyes set widely under discontented brows. There was an air of urgency about her; you could see it in her restless movements, in the sudden glow in her changeable eyes, and in the hungry line of her mouth. She had a beautiful voice, like a stringed instrument. It was mellow, and flexible, which made her the ideal choice for a Shakespearean role. It cast into shocking relief the light, metallic tones of her contemporaries, with their clipped vowels, and the oddly common inflexions they so carefully cultivated. She knew how to throw it, too: no doubt about that, thought Mathilda, hearing it float upstairs from the hall.
She heard her own name. "In the Blue Room? Oh! I'll go up!"
Mathilda sat back on her dressing-stool to await Paula's entrance. In a minute or two there was a perfunctory knock on the door, and before she could call Come in! Paula had entered, bringing with her that uncomfortable feeling of impatience, of scarcely curbed energy.
"Mathilda! Darling!"
"Ware my make-up!" Mathilda exclaimed, dodging the embrace.
Paula chuckled, deep in her throat. "Idiot! I'm so glad to see you! Who's here? Stephen? Valerie? Oh, that girl! My dear, if you knew the feeling I have here about her!" She struck her chest as she spoke; her eyes quite blazed for a moment, but then she blinked her thick lashes, and laughed, and said: "Oh, never mind that! Brothers -! I've brought Willoughby."
"Who is Willoughby?" demanded Mathilda.