"Oh, well, perhaps Lady Cressida will reconcile the Wetheralls to meeting Carry Fisher," said Miss Bart pacifically.
"I"m sure I hope so! But she is boring all the men horribly, and if she takes to distributing tracts, as I hear she does, it will be too depressing. The worst of it is that she would have been so useful at the right time. You know we have to have the Bishop once a year, and she would have given just the right tone to things. I always have horrid luck about the Bishop"s visits," added Mrs. Trenor, whose present misery was being fed by a rapidly rising tide of reminiscence; "last year, when he came, Gus forgot all about his being here, and brought home the Ned Wintons and the Farleys--five divorces and six sets of children between them!"
"When is Lady Cressida going?" Lily enquired.
Mrs. Trenor cast up her eyes in despair. "My dear, if one only knew! I was in such a hurry to get her away from Maria that I actually forgot to name a date, and Gus says she told some one she meant to stop here all winter."
"To stop here? In this house?"
"Don"t be silly--in America. But if no one else asks her--you know they NEVER go to hotels."
"Perhaps Gus only said it to frighten you."
"No--I heard her tell Bertha Dorset that she had six months to put in while her husband was taking the cure in the Engadine. You should have seen Bertha look vacant! But it"s no joke, you know--if she stays here all the autumn she"ll spoil everything, and Maria Van Osburgh will simply exult."
At this affecting vision Mrs. Trenor"s voice trembled with self-pity.
"Oh, Judy--as if any one were ever bored at Bellomont!" Miss Bart tactfully protested. "You know perfectly well that, if Mrs. Van Osburgh were to get all the right people and leave you with all the wrong ones, you"d manage to make things go off, and she wouldn"t."
Such an a.s.surance would usually have restored Mrs. Trenor"s complacency; but on this occasion it did not chase the cloud from her brow.
"It isn"t only Lady Cressida," she lamented. "Everything has gone wrong this week. I can see that Bertha Dorset is furious with me."
"Furious with you? Why?"
"Because I told her that Lawrence Selden was coming; but he wouldn"t, after all, and she"s quite unreasonable enough to think it"s my fault."
Miss Bart put down her pen and sat absently gazing at the note she had begun.
"I thought that was all over," she said.
"So it is, on his side. And of course Bertha has been idle since. But I fancy she"s out of a job just at present--and some one gave me a hint that I had better ask Lawrence. Well, I DID ask him--but I couldn"t make him come; and now I suppose she"ll take it out of me by being perfectly nasty to every one else."
"Oh, she may take it out of HIM by being perfectly charming--to some one else."
Mrs. Trenor shook her head dolefully. "She knows he wouldn"t mind. And who else is there? Alice Wetherall won"t let Lucius out of her sight.
Ned Silverton can"t take his eyes off Carry Fisher--poor boy! Gus is bored by Bertha, Jack Stepney knows her too well--and--well, to be sure, there"s Percy Gryce!"
She sat up smiling at the thought.
Miss Bart"s countenance did not reflect the smile.
"Oh, she and Mr. Gryce would not be likely to hit it off."
"You mean that she"d shock him and he"d bore her? Well, that"s not such a bad beginning, you know. But I hope she won"t take it into her head to be nice to him, for I asked him here on purpose for you."
Lily laughed. "MERCI DU COMPLIMENT! I should certainly have no show against Bertha."
"Do you think I am uncomplimentary? I"m not really, you know. Every one knows you"re a thousand times handsomer and cleverer than Bertha; but then you"re not nasty. And for always getting what she wants in the long run, commend me to a nasty woman."
Miss Bart stared in affected reproval. "I thought you were so fond of Bertha."
"Oh, I am--it"s much safer to be fond of dangerous people. But she IS dangerous--and if I ever saw her up to mischief it"s now. I can tell by poor George"s manner. That man is a perfect barometer--he always knows when Bertha is going to----"
"To fall?" Miss Bart suggested.
"Don"t be shocking! You know he believes in her still. And of course I don"t say there"s any real harm in Bertha. Only she delights in making people miserable, and especially poor George."
"Well, he seems cut out for the part--I don"t wonder she likes more cheerful companionship."
"Oh, George is not as dismal as you think. If Bertha did worry him he would be quite different. Or if she"d leave him alone, and let him arrange his life as he pleases. But she doesn"t dare lose her hold of him on account of the money, and so when HE isn"t jealous she pretends to be."
Miss Bart went on writing in silence, and her hostess sat following her train of thought with frowning intensity.
"Do you know," she exclaimed after a long pause, "I believe I"ll call up Lawrence on the telephone and tell him he simply MUST come?"
"Oh, don"t," said Lily, with a quick suffusion of colour. The blush surprised her almost as much as it did her hostess, who, though not commonly observant of facial changes, sat staring at her with puzzled eyes.
"Good gracious, Lily, how handsome you are! Why? Do you dislike him so much?"
"Not at all; I like him. But if you are actuated by the benevolent intention of protecting me from Bertha--I don"t think I need your protection."
Mrs. Trenor sat up with an exclamation. "Lily!----PERCY? Do you mean to say you"ve actually done it?"
Miss Bart smiled. "I only mean to say that Mr. Gryce and I are getting to be very good friends."
"H"m--I see." Mrs. Trenor fixed a rapt eye upon her. "You know they say he has eight hundred thousand a year--and spends nothing, except on some rubbishy old books. And his mother has heart-disease and will leave him a lot more. OH, LILY, DO GO SLOWLY," her friend adjured her.
Miss Bart continued to smile without annoyance. "I shouldn"t, for instance," she remarked, "be in any haste to tell him that he had a lot of rubbishy old books."
"No, of course not; I know you"re wonderful about getting up people"s subjects. But he"s horribly shy, and easily shocked, and--and----"
"Why don"t you say it, Judy? I have the reputation of being on the hunt for a rich husband?"
"Oh, I don"t mean that; he wouldn"t believe it of you--at first," said Mrs. Trenor, with candid shrewdness. "But you know things are rather lively here at times--I must give Jack and Gus a hint--and if he thought you were what his mother would call fast--oh, well, you know what I mean.
Don"t wear your scarlet CREPE-DE-CHINE for dinner, and don"t smoke if you can help it, Lily dear!"
Lily pushed aside her finished work with a dry smile. "You"re very kind, Judy: I"ll lock up my cigarettes and wear that last year"s dress you sent me this morning. And if you are really interested in my career, perhaps you"ll be kind enough not to ask me to play bridge again this evening."
"Bridge? Does he mind bridge, too? Oh, Lily, what an awful life you"ll lead! But of course I won"t--why didn"t you give me a hint last night?
There"s nothing I wouldn"t do, you poor duck, to see you happy!"
And Mrs. Trenor, glowing with her s.e.x"s eagerness to smooth the course of true love, enveloped Lily in a long embrace.
"You"re quite sure," she added solicitously, as the latter extricated herself, "that you wouldn"t like me to telephone for Lawrence Selden?"
"Quite sure," said Lily.