However, they would see. It was true that Aunt Emily seemed to be wavering. Eton v. Harrow was through. People were packing up and clearing off to Goodwood and then to Cowes for the yachting. Lady Violet obtained an invitation for her little friend aboard the Excelsior with those comic people the Dunnings. Glorious beer. But in Britain these days there was great competition even for that. It was one of the key industries that had done very well in the War. She herself was going to spend five days aboard the Excelsior, if she was able to survive them. No doubt she would. New people were so much more amusing than the old. But she had rather made it a condition that she should be accompanied by her little friend.
Still, Cowes and the Dunnings were a mere side show. Scotland at the end of next month would be the joy wheel. And Aunt Emily seemed to be wavering. To Celimene’s chagrin, Mame had not been included in the invitation she herself had already received. If it went phut, it would be one up to the other side.
A proper score for Mrs. Creber Newsum if Miss Du Rance was left out. Her friend and partner chivalrously felt she must be up and doing. In some ways it would suit the firm better for Mame to stay in town gathering news while Celimene was sunning herself on the moors, but that hardly seemed fair. Besides, their job could be carried on anywhere within reach of a telegraph office; and in that respect Dunkeldie was very well off.
Honest work and real grit had earned the reward of a jolly fortnight. Celimene was fully determined that Mame should have it. She was beginning to take a personal pride in the success against odds of this clever child. Besides, if little Miss Chicago was left out in the cold, there would be smiles.
The thing hung fire so long that it began to look as if the day was going against them. Mame herself inclined to think so. The Colony was very active; it was always trying to call her bluff. All through the summer she had managed to keep her chin above water, but she could not expect to go on like that forever. Soon or late, something was bound to happen.
There were several reasons why Mame’s heart was set on an invitation to Dunkeldie; but one must not look for everything in this world. All the same it was a defeat. And the moral of it was, no doubt, that at last the tide had begun to turn.
XXXVI
COWES was very enjoyable. The Excelsior was a comfortable yacht. Its hospitality was lavish. Dunning père was perhaps inclined to set a value on himself; the same applied to Dunning mère; but Sidney Dunning, heir to half a million six per cent debentures, was well mannered and attentive. On the slightest provocation he showed a decided tendency to come along.
For some reason Lady Violet did not seem to warm to the Dunnings, although she managed to take money off them at bridge, a game in which Miss Du Rance had been recently initiated and for which she showed quite an aptitude. But in the matter of Sidney Dunning, the sponsor was inclined to think Mame might do worse. New money of course. Still. Que voulez vous? They lived in times when all money was new; the Bolshies of the earth, by no means confined to Russia, had seen to that. Sidney Dunning was really not so bad. Eton and Christ Church: a little comically so, dear lad! But if Miss Du Rance was giving her mind to such matters there could be no harm in Sidney Dunning. A mère, of course, was bent on a title; still in Celimene’s opinion it was rather up to Mame.
Sidney Dunning would be an insurance anyway. He was not the only dabchick on the water; there were others good and plenty; but his plumage was more richly feathered than theirs; and in the circumstances he would perhaps be safer. Half a million six per cent, high-class brewery debentures are nice things to have locked up in your husband’s strong box when you have no money of your own. Still, a little impertinent all this of Celimene, was not it?