"Hi, Sunny Jim! You that know everything about "what"s worn, and where,"" she cried. "I"m just telling your friend Miss Million that n.o.body"d call on her again unless she puts on all the family diamonds for our little supper after the show to-night!"
Miss Million looked anguished. She really believed that she was going to be "let down" before her much-admired Mr. Burke (scamp!) before the cobra-lady and the other theatrical lights.
I knew how she felt!
She would be covered with disgrace, she would be "laughed at behind her back" because she was a millionairess--without any diamonds.... They"d think she wasn"t a real millionairess....
I had to come to the rescue.
So I looked Million steadily and rea.s.suringly in the eye as I announced quite distinctly, but in my "quiet, respectful" voice: "I am afraid, Miss, that there is scarcely time to get the diamonds for to-night. You remember that all the jewellery is at the bank."
Indescribable relief spread itself over Million"s small face. She felt saved. She didn"t mind anything now, not even the loudness with which the bright-haired comedienne burst out laughing again.
I wonder why that shrewd, vivacious woman comes to call on Million? It"s not the money this time, surely?
Miss Vi Va.s.sity must draw the largest salary of any one on the halls?
Why does she sit beaming at my young mistress, drawing her out, watching her? And the other, the cobra-woman; what"s she doing there in a world to which she doesn"t seem to belong at all?
And the Jew they call Leo? Will they all be at the party they"re taking Miss Million to to-night?
They all burst into fresh chatter about it. Under cover of the noise the Honourable Jim edged closer to me and murmured, without looking at me: "All her jewels at the bank, is it? That"s not true, child, while she has a Kohinoor--for a maid!"
Fearful impertinence again. But, thank goodness, none of the others heard it.
And he, who"s been drinking tea and chattering with me the whole afternoon, had the grace not to glance at me as I slipped away out of the tea-room and to the hall.
Here another surprise awaited me.
Miss Million began to enjoy her tea-party tremendously--as soon as it was all over and she herself was safely back in her own bedroom with her maid.
She didn"t seem to realise that she had only then emerged from a state of shrinking and speechless panic!
"Jer see all those people, Smith, that I was having such a fine old time with?" she exulted, as I began to unfasten her afternoon frock.
"Miss Vi Va.s.sity, if you please! Jer recanise her from the pictures?
Lor"! When I did use to get to a music-hall to hear her, once in a blue moon, little did I ever think I"d one day be sitting there as close to her as I am to you, talkin" away nineteen to the dozen to her, as if she was n.o.body!
"Wasn"t that a sweet blouse she"d got on? I wonder what she"s goin" to put on to-night after the theatre; you know we"re having supper all together, her and me and the Honourable Mr. Burke and Lady Golightly-Long, that tall lady, and some other gentlemen and ladies that"s coming on from somewhere.
"And, Smith! I don"t think I"m going to wear that white frock you"re putting out there," concluded my young mistress, rather breathlessly; "there don"t seem to me to be enough style about it for the occasion; I"ll wear me cerise evening one with the spangles."
"Cerise? But you haven"t got a cerise evening frock," I began. "I didn"t let you order that----"
Then I caught Million"s half-rueful, half-triumphant glance at a new white carton box on the wicker chair beside her bed. And I saw what had happened.
No sooner was her maid"s back turned than Miss Million had wired, or telephoned, or perhaps called at that shop, and secured that cherry-coloured creation. It would have looked daringly effective on--say, Miss Lee White in an Alhambra burlesque. On little Million it would have a vulgarity not to be described in words. I"d thought I"d guided her safely away from it! And now this!
"Yes, you see I thought better of buying that gown," said the heiress, flushed but defiant. "You see, you were wrong about those very bright shades not being the c"rect thing; why, look at what that Lady Golightly-Long had got on her back! Red and green and blue tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, and I don"t know what all, all stuck on at once. And she ought to know what"s what, if anybody did," Million persisted, "c"nsidering she"s a Earl"s cousin and one of the Highest in the Land!"
"Certainly one of the longest," I said, thinking of those unending lissom limbs swathed in the Futurist draperies of that cobra-woman.
Million went on to inform me, impressively, that this lady, too, was "a Perfeshional." Does cla.s.sic dancing, they call it. Needn"t do it for her living, of course. But she says she"s "wrapped up in the Art of it."
Likes to do what she likes, I s"pose she means.
"She"s got a lovely home of her own, Miss Vi Va.s.sity told me, in Aberdeenshire.
"Not only that, but a big bungalow she has near the river. Sometimes she has down parties of her own particular friends to watch her dancing on the lawn there, in the moonlight. And, Smith!" Here Million gave a little skip out of her skirt, "What jer think?"
"What?" I asked, as I drew the cerise frock from its wrappings. (Worse, far worse than in the shop. Still, I"d got to let her wear it, I suppose. And it may be drowned by Miss Vi Va.s.sity"s voice at the supper-table.)
"Why, she"s going to ask me down there, too, to one of her week-end parties! Think o" that! An invitation to visit! Some time when Mr.
Burke"s going. He often goes to the house. All most artistic, he told me; and a man-cook from Vienna. Fancy!" breathed Miss Million. "Fancy me stayin" in a house like that!"
I took up her ivory brushes and began to do her hair.
"You"re very quiet to-night," said Million. "Didn"t you enjoy your afternoon out?"
"Oh, yes. Quite, thank you," I said rather absently.
I was longing to have the room to myself, with peace and quiet to put away Miss Million"s things--and to think in. To think over "my afternoon out," with its unexpected encounter, its unexpected conversation! And to meditate over that other surprise that I"d found waiting for me at the end of it.
At last Miss Million was dressed. I put the beautiful mother-o"-pearl, satin-lined wrap upon her shoulders, st.u.r.dily made against the flaring, flimsy, cerise-coloured ninon.
"Needn"t wait up for me," said my mistress, bright-eyed as a child with tremulous excitement over this new expedition. "I"ll wake you if I can"t manage to undo myself. Don"t suppose I shall get back until "the divil"s dancin" hour," as that Mr. Burke calls it. He"ll be waitin" for me now, downstairs."
Really that young man lives a life of contrasts!
Tea with Miss Million"s maid! Dinner and supper with Miss Million herself!
I wonder which he considers the more amusing bit of light opera?
"Pity I can"t take you with me to-night, really ... seems so lonely-like for you, left in this great place and all," said the kind-hearted little Million at the door. "Got something to read, have you?"
"Oh, yes, thanks!" I laughed and nodded. "I have got something to read."
CHAPTER XVI
A WORD OF WARNING
AND as the door shut behind my mistress I took that "something to read"
out of its hiding-place behind my belt and my frilly ap.r.o.n-bib.
It"s the letter that was waiting for me when I came in. I"ve hardly had time to grasp the contents of it yet. It"s addressed in a small, precise, masculine hand: