"But if there aren"t any, she might miss them," said Clifford.
"She will probably enjoy the change."
"You can"t think how pretty she is! I say, mother."
"Yes, dear."
"I say, can"t you have fur put round the edge of your shoes!"
"Fur round the edge of my shoes!" she repeated in a hollow voice.
He twisted his hands together self-consciously.
"Mrs. Pickering had an awful ripping violet sort of dress, and violet satin boots with fur round the edge. ... I noticed them when we played "Death in the Desert." I thought they were rather pretty."
"Extremely bad style, I should think. At any rate, not the sort of thing that I should dream of wearing. Now get along."
Clifford went down to the kitchen and worried the cook with descriptions of the gorgeous cakes he had seen at the Pickerings till she said that his ma had better accept her notice, and engage the Pickerings" cook instead.
"Orders from you, Master Clifford, I will not take. And now you"ve got it straight. _For grars_ in the afternoon is a thing I don"t hold with and never would hold with, and I"ve lived in the best families. There"s some nice sandwiches made of _gentlemen"s relish_ made of Blootes"
paste, your ma"s always "ad since I"ve been here; it"s done for her and the best families I"ve lived in. _Fors grars_ is served at the end of dinner with apsia and jelly, or else in one of them things with crust on the top and truffles. But for tea I consider it quite out of place."
She went on to say that if she couldn"t have her kitchen to herself without the young gentlemen of the house putting their oar in, she would leave that day month.
Clifford fled, frightened, and tidied himself.
At about five, when two or three old cronies of Lady Kellynch"s were sitting round, talking about the royal family, a gigantic motor, painted white, came to the door, and Mrs. Pickering was announced.
She was very young and very pretty. Her hair was the very brightest gold, and she had rather too much mauve and too much smile; she almost curtsied to her hostess, and instantly gave that lady the impression that she must have been not so very long ago the princ.i.p.al boy at some popular pantomime.
CHAPTER XXV
MRS. PICKERING
"Our boys are such very great friends--I really felt I must know you!"
cried Mrs. Pickering in the most cordial way. She spoke with a very slight c.o.c.kney accent. She bristled with aigrettes and sparkled with jewels. Her bodice was cut very low, her sleeves very short, and her white gloves came over the braceleted elbows. She wore a very high, narrow turban, green satin shoes and stockings, and altogether was dressed rather excessively; she looked like one of Louis Bauer"s drawings in _Punch_. She was certainly most striking in appearance, and a little alarming in a quiet room, but most decidedly pretty and with a very pleasant smile.
Lady Kellynch received her with great courtesy, but was not sufficiently adaptable and subtle to conceal at once the fact that Mrs. Pickering"s general appearance and manner had completely taken her breath away.
Also, she was annoyed that Lady Gertrude Munster was there to-day. Lady Gertrude was one of her great cards. She was a clever, glib, battered-looking, elderly woman, who, since her husband had once been at the Emba.s.sy in Vienna, had a.s.sumed a slight foreign accent; it was meant to be Austrian but sounded Scotch. Lady Gertrude looked rather m.u.f.fled and seemed to have more thick veils and feather boas on than was necessary for the time of the year. She was an old friend of Lady Kellynch"s, and they detested each other, but never missed an opportunity of meeting, chiefly in order to impress each other, in one way or another, or cause each other envy or annoyance.
Lady Kellynch was always very specially careful whom she asked, or allowed, to meet Lady Gertrude. She had wanted Bertha particularly to-day and was vexed at this unexpected arrival.
"Your daughter-in-law, my dear?" asked Lady Gertrude, in a surprised tone, putting up her long tortoisesh.e.l.l gla.s.s.
"Oh _dear_, no, Gertrude! Surely you know Bertha by sight! I never had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Pickering before."
"Charmed to meet you," said Mrs. Pickering again, giving a kind of curtsy and smiling at Lady Gertrude. "Ah, there"s my little friend!
Well, Cliff, didn"t we have fun the other day? Eustace was sorry he couldn"t come to-day. We had the greatest larks, Lady Kellynch! I play with the kids just like one of themselves. We"ve got a great big room fixed up on purpose for Cissie and Eustace to romp. We haven"t been there very long yet, Lady Kellynch. You know that big corner house in Hamilton Place leading into Park Lane. My husband thinks there"s nothing good enough for the children. If it comes to that, he thinks there"s nothing good enough for me." She giggled. "He gave me this emerald brooch only this morning. "Oh, Tom," I said, "what a silly you are. You don"t want to make a fuss about birthdays now we"re getting on." But he is silly about me! It"s a nice little thing, isn"t it?" she said, showing it to Lady Gertrude, who put up her gla.s.s to examine it.
"Lady Gertrude Munster--Mrs. Pickering," said Lady Kellynch. "Some tea?"
"Thanks, no tea. It"s a pretty little thing, isn"t it, Lady Munster?"
"Rather nice. Are they real?" asked Lady Gertrude.
Mrs. Pickering laughed very loudly. "You"re getting at me. I shouldn"t be so pleased with it if it came out of a cracker! But what I always say about presents, Lady Kellynch, is, it isn"t so much the kind thought, it"s the value of the gift I look at. No, I meant----"
"What you said, I suppose," said Lady Gertrude, who was rather enjoying herself, as she saw her hostess was irritated.
"Whoever"s that pretty picture over there?"
Mrs. Pickering got up and went to look at the piano.
Lady Kellynch still retained (with several other _pa.s.se_ fashions) the very South Kensington custom of covering up her large piano with a handsome piece of j.a.panese embroidery, which was caught up at intervals into bunchy bits of drapery, fastened by pots of flowers with sashes round their necks and with a very large number of dark photographs in frames, so very artistic in their heavy shading that one saw only a gleam of light occasionally on the tip of the nose or the back of the neck--all the rest in shadow--all with very large dashing signatures slanting across the corners, chiefly of former dim social celebrities or present well-known obscurities. The photograph she was looking at now was a pretty one of Bertha.
"Ah, that is my daughter-in-law."
Lady Kellynch pointed it out to Lady Gertrude.
"This _is_ pretty--what you can see of it."
"Here she is herself."
Bertha came in.
"Mrs. Pickering--Mrs. Percy Kellynch."
The hostess gave Bertha an imploring look. She took in the situation at a glance and drew Mrs. Pickering a little aside, where Lady Gertrude could not listen to her piercing c.o.c.kney accent.
Clifford joined the group.
If Lady Kellynch had been, almost against her will, reminded by something in her visitor of a pantomime, Bertha saw far more. She was convinced at once that the rich eldest son of Pickering, the Jam King, had been dazzled and carried away, some fourteen years ago, and bestowed his enormous fortune and himself, probably against his family"s wish, on a little provincial chorus girl. Her cheery determination to get on, and an evident sense of humour, made Bertha like her, in spite of her sn.o.bbishness and her manner. She was a change, at least, to meet here, and when Mrs. Pickering produced her card, which she did to everyone to whom she spoke, Bertha promised to call and asked her also. Of course one would have to be a shade careful whom one asked to meet her, but probably it would be a jolly house to go to. And nowadays! Still, Bertha was a little surprised that Clifford was so infatuated with the mother of his friend. She forgot that at twelve years old one is not fastidious; the taste is crude. If he admired Bertha"s fair hair, he thought Mrs. Pickering"s brilliant gold curls still prettier. Besides, Mrs. Pickering petted and made much of him, and was very kind.
She stayed much too long for a first visit, and as she went of course produced another card, saying to the m.u.f.fled lady:
"Pleased to have met you, Lady Munster. I hope you"ll call and see our new house. We"re going to give a ball soon. We"re entertaining this season."
"She certainly is," murmured Lady Gertrude. Then, as she left: "My dear, where do you pick up your extraordinary friends?"
This was a particularly nasty one for Lady Kellynch, who made such a point of her exclusiveness.
"Clifford is responsible for this, I think," said Bertha. "The boys are at the same school, and they"ve been very kind to him. I think she"s very amusing, and a good sort."
"Oh, quite a character! She told me she met her husband at Blackpool. He fell in love with her when she was playing Prince Charming in No. 2 B Company on tour with the pantomime _Little Miss m.u.f.fet_."