Lucinda remembered having once heard a physician of psycho-analytic bent commit himself to the statement that in ten years of active professional life he had never entered one ménage where two people lived in wedded happiness. And sifting a list of married acquaintances, Lucinda found it not safe to say of one that he or she was happy; of most it was true that they had the best of reasons for being unhappy. It was true of Nelly Guest and Jean Sedley, it was true of herself, doubtless it was true of Fanny. Lucinda had yet to meet Lontaine, and if Fanny's looks were fair criterion, she was the most carefree of women; and yet...
Fanny caught Lucinda eyeing her and smiled.
"What under the sun are you thinking about so solemnly, Cindy?"
"You, dear. You haven't told me anything about yourself yet."
"No chance. Give me half a show"—Fanny glanced askance at Jean and Nelly, now amiably engaged in bickering about the merits of various modistes—"and you shall know All."
"I'd dearly love to. You must lunch with me at home some day soon; and then I want you and your husband to dine with us—say next Thursday?"
"I don't know. That's one of the exciting things about being married to Harry Lontaine, one never knows what tomorrow will bring forth. We've got to go to Chicago soon, because—daresay you know—father relented enough to leave me a little legacy, nothing to brag about, but nothing people in our position can afford to despise, either."
Lucinda made a sympathetic face and said something vague about everybody in England still feeling the pinch of the War. But Fanny elected to scorn generalizations.
"Oh, the only effect the War could have had on our fortunes would have been to kill off the half a dozen relatives that stand between Harry and the title. But he was out of luck—served three years in France and Flanders and got all shot up and decorated with the dearest little tin medals on the prettiest ribbons, while his precious kinsmen held down cushy berths in the Munitions and kept in training for the longevity record."
"But how proud you must have been——!"