Toni, who was very pale, filled his cup with rather a trembling hand, and Mrs. Anstey saw that the woman's insolence had unnerved her.
Appearing to notice nothing, she began to make conversation, discoursing gently on various unimportant topics until Toni grew more like herself; and when at length Mrs. Anstey rose to go she had completely won Toni's grateful heart.
Toni took leave of her visitors regretfully, and readily promised to return the visit as soon as possible; and then she and Fanny accompanied them to the door to see them comfortably settled in the big grey car.
Barry was driving, Olive sitting beside him; and the girl turned and waved a kindly hand as the car began to glide down the avenue in the afternoon sunshine.
"My! Isn't she pretty!" Miss Gibbs' admiration was sincere. "And that blue bonnet of hers was a dream—must have cost pounds!"
"I think Mrs. Anstey is beautiful," said Toni, rather dreamily, gazing after the car. "I don't wonder Miss Lynn is so devoted to her. She is just my ideal of a lady."
"Better than that other stuck-up cat," said Fanny rather viciously. "And as for that maypole of a daughter, she's nothing but a gawk."
"Oh, don't let's go in there!" Toni laid a hand on her cousin's arm as Fanny turned towards the dining-room. "I don't want to see the tea-table any more! Fan, wasn't it horrible when they came first?"
"Well, they were a bit sticky," said Fanny frankly. "But nobody seemed to care! Mr. Raymond was just making game of them all the time."
"Well, don't let's think of them," said Toni, shaking herself as though freeing her shoulders from an incubus. "We'll go on the river for an hour, Fan, and then you shall see the house."