CHAPTER X
THE LADY ANNE
Lady Anne Garland was sitting by a rosewood writing-desk in her morning-room. She had finished her letters, and was now sitting idle, gazing through the window on to the terrace, and away to the distant woods and hills, which lay serenely blue in the sunlight.
She was dreaming rather than thinking, and a pleasant little dream it would seem, by the half smile in her grey eyes. The sunshine lay along the floor in a broad, vivid patch. It fell across her white dress and on her dark hair, which held the blue-black sheen of a rook’s plumage. Her skin was creamy-white, and her mouth, modelled like the mouth of a Greek statue, was of geranium red. In fine, Lady Anne was beautiful.
The sound of the door opening made her turn her head. A small thin woman entered. She [Pg 95]was dressed in a tailor-made dress of some pepper-and-salt material, and wore a black straw hat, rather floppy, and distinctly out of keeping with her otherwise tailor-made appearance. Her hair was grey, and her skin somewhat like parchment, but her eyes and mouth were kindly.
“Finished your letters?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Anne, getting up from her desk. “Come into the garden. It is too lovely a day to waste indoors.”
She led the way through the French window on to the terrace, and sat down on one of two deck-chairs. Miss Haldane followed her example.
“You should have a hat,” she said abruptly.
“No,” replied Anne lazily, “I like the sun. I think my skin is too thick to burn. Look at the blueness on those woods and hills; isn’t it glorious?”