Claudia could not speak, she gently nodded.
“Well,” said Fay huskily, her eyes suspiciously moist, “you’re it all right, that’s all I can say. I—you can touch me for anything you want. You’ve only got to ask me. I say, hand me over that leather case from the chest of drawers—yes, that’s the one.”
Wonderingly, Claudia obeyed, and handed her the case which was a cheap leather imitation.
Fay opened the case with a key from under her pillow and rummaged inside. Presently she produced a small box.
“There! I want to show you this. It’s for you. It’s quite straight; you needn’t think I got it in any—any way you wouldn’t like. I bought it off someone who was hard up.” “It” was a diamond and ruby brooch, and quite a tasteful affair in the form of two hearts, transfixed by an arrow.
“Oh! but Fay, I couldn’t——”
“Take it, I say, or I shall think you don’t mean what you said just now. Two hearts, d’yer see—you and me! Quite romantic, isn’t it? Put it on that lacy thing at your throat. Yes, it looks nice. No, you’re not going to thank me. Just give me a kiss, that’s all.”
For a few moments the lips of the two met, so different in their upbringing and views of life, but strangely brought together by the hand of Fate.
“Now look at my joolery. Never seen it, have you? Well, it aint so dusty, if I says it. I’ve always got them to shell out all right. After all,” with a quaint little touch of vanity, “when you top the bill you’re worth it, and I don’t believe in making yourself cheap or making men meaner than they are. Not that I exactly like them for what they give you, but it shows they do like you, because a man doesn’t stump up easily.... There, that’s a stunning pendant, isn’t it? It cost two hundred and fifty, because I went and chose it.”