THE next day, about six o’clock in the evening, Lady Violet was sitting alone with some very hard and rueful thoughts when Davis, with a face of doom, portentously announced the Marchioness of Kidderminster.
She had come up post haste from Shropshire. On the top of Violet’s urgent but cryptic telegram had arrived an amazing letter from Bill. Their mother, on the spur of the moment, had made up her mind to catch the 11:15 at Millfield, which in turn would pick up the express at Shrewsbury; and as she succeeded as a rule in doing the things upon which she set her mind, why here she was.
The greetings of mother and daughter were affectionate, but they were sorry. Both felt that a catastrophe had occurred; and it was of such magnitude that they were quite stunned by its force.
“A little American, you say, without any money?”
Lady Kidderminster quite correctly had the sense of what her daughter had said. Those, indeed, were her words. “It’s terrible,” said Lady Kidderminster piteously. From her point of view it was.
Both ladies were much inclined to blame themselves; and also to blame each other. Lady Kidderminster could not help reproaching Violet for turning loose such a dangerous creature upon a simple unprotected society. In future, perhaps, she would be more careful in her choice of friends. Violet retaliated by saying that her mother ought never to have let the summer go by without simply making Bill marry Gwendolen Childwick. Wretched boy, it was the only marriage he could make if he was to keep his head above water!
However, it was no use repining. There was no time for that. Mother and daughter were both people of resolution. And they had great common sense. Something would have to be done to stop this ruinous affair. But, they asked themselves, what? Already it had gone much too far. It would be impossible for Bill to back out now.
“Our only chance, my dear,” said Violet slowly and forcefully, “and I own it’s a very slender one, is to see what can be done with this Miss Du Rance.”
“But if she’s as horrid and as pushful as you say, she will be the last person in the world to give him up.”
“Horrid she is not.” Mame’s friend spoke judicially. “Quite a nice little thing in her way. Personally I like her very much, but as a wife for Bill she is unthinkable; particularly as she has to earn her own living.”