"She's going to make an Entrance," replied Mary gloomily. "I had one or two things to see to after I'd changed, so I hadn't time to find out what her role is for tonight. She was a femme fatale last night, but I shouldn't thinkk she'll repeat herself quite so'soon."
She was right. Vicky, entering the room five minutes later, was dressed in a wispy frock of startling design, and still more startling abbreviations. She displayed, without reserve, a remarkably pretty back, her frock being suspended round her neck by a plait of the material of which it was made. Her curls stood out in a bunch in the nape of her neck, but were swept severely off her brow and temples. A diamond bracelet, begged from Ermyntrude's collection, encircled one ankle under a filmy stocking, and her naturally long lashes were ruthlessly tinted with blue.
"One of the Younger Set," said Mary knowledgeably.
"So sorry if I've kept anybody waiting!" said Vicky. "Oh, how do you do, Lady Dering? How do you do, everybody? Oh, is that sherry? How filthy! No, I'll have a White Lady thank you."
"Good Lord!" murmured Hugh, taken aback.
Sir William was also startled, but when Vicky smiled at him, rather in the manner of an engaging street urchin, his countenance relaxed slightly, and he asked her what she was doing with herself now that she had come home to live.
"Well, it all depends," she replied seriously.
Sir William had no daughters, but only his memories of his sisters to guide him, so he said that he had no doubt she was a great help to her mother, arranging flowers, and that kind of thing.
"Oh no, only if it's that sort of a day!" said Vicky.
Sir William was still turning this remark over in his mind when the butler came in to announce that dinner was served. He found it so incomprehensible that presently, when he had taken a seat at Ermyntrude's right hand in the dining-room and found that Vicky had been placed on his other side, he inquired what she had meant by it.