“She was infinitely involved.”
“Upon what could she spend so much?”
“Her clothes,” Mrs. Sixsmith replied with a nervous titter, “for one thing, were exquisite. All from the atelier of the divine Katinka King....”
“King?”
“She knew! Puss! The white mantilla for the Balcony scene alone cost her close on three hundred pounds.”
“And where, may I ask, is it now?”
“It disappeared,” Mrs. Sixsmith answered, a quick red shooting over her face, “in the general confusion. I hear even,” she murmured with a little laugh, “they even filched the till!”
“What of the little ingénue she took to live with her?”
“May Mant? Her sister is sending her to school—if (that is) she can get her to go!”
“It was her inadvertence, I take it, that caused my daughter’s death.”