The ball at Lady Melchester"s was even more fantastic and extravagant than the other parties at which Torilla had been present since she arrived in London.
The Countess had however protested against Beryl and Torilla attending it.
"I cannot bear that Melchester woman!" she groaned disparagingly. "She is fast and her love affairs are a scandal. I cannot imagine why you should wish to accept her over-pressing invitations."
"She gives good parties, Mama, and all my friends will be there," Beryl replied simply, shrugging her beautifully rounded shoulders.
"She has nothing but money to recommend her," the Countess snapped, "but of course, I know that most of your friends care for little else."
Beryl laughed good-humouredly.
"That is because it is something that most of them lack."
She gave a little self-satisfied sigh.
"One comforting thought is that no one can say that about Gallen."
"No, indeed," the Countess agreed, her voice softening, "and I am sure, Beryl, if you play your cards right, he will prove a very generous husband."
"I will make sure of that!"
Torilla put down the book she was reading and, rising from the sofa in the drawing room, she walked to the window.
She found it not only embarra.s.sing but also hurtful to listen to Beryl and her mother talking in such a manner about the Marquis.
She had thought many hard things about him herself, but it was different in the case of Beryl, who had no grounds for criticising him, or the Countess, who was quite obviously jubilant at the idea of such an advantageous marriage.
It suddenly struck her that the reason why he looked cynical was that the women he knew talked in such a hard and calculating manner and he was well aware of it.
Where she was concerned he was more perceptive and more intuitive than she had imagined any man could be. If he knew what she was thinking, surely he must be well aware also of Beryl"s thoughts?
More and more as she saw them together she found herself praying that if her cousin was to marry the Marquis as she intended she would grow to love him.
"How can Beryl contemplate," Torilla asked herself, "the sort of marriage that exists between her father and mother?"
The Countess never missed an opportunity of criticising the Earl and a day never pa.s.sed without her saying something cutting and unkind, which revealed all too clearly her feelings towards him.
Torilla wondered if Beryl would become the same sort of woman and she had a feeling she would.
Marriage, however rich the bridegroom might be, however luxurious their surroundings, could be nothing but a farce if the two people concerned in it did not love each other.
She could remember the tenderness in her mother"s voice when she spoke to her father and could recall the look of adoration in the Vicar"s eyes when her mother rose every time he returned home to kiss him.
Torilla could not imagine Beryl worrying over the Marquis, seeking in every way to make him happy and sacrificing her own desires and interests for his.
Because she loved Beryl very deeply and sincerely, Torilla found herself growing more and more unhappy as their first week in London pa.s.sed.
She was well aware that Beryl met Lord Newall at every party and they always disappeared into the garden or to some part of the house where they would be alone.
Beryl had introduced him to her and Torilla found that Lord Newall was a good-looking man with dark pa.s.sionate eyes that seldom left Beryl"s face.
There was an intensity about him that she could understand Beryl finding attractive, and yet because she knew her cousin so well she was well aware that whilst Lord Newall amused Beryl she was not really in love with him.
"Would you like to marry His Lordship?" Torilla had asked her one evening when they returned home after Beryl had disappeared for longer than usual in the garden of Bedford House.
"I am sure Charles would be a very ardent lover," Beryl replied, "but he has no money and there is an old adage that "when poverty comes in the door, love flies out of the window"."
"Does money matter so very much when one is in love?" Torilla asked in a low voice.
"Of course it does!"
Then after a moment"s pause Beryl said in a different tone, "Though I suppose if one was really, completely, overwhelmingly in love, one would forget everything else."
"That is what we used to say we both wanted," Torilla said softly.
"When we were young and knew nothing about men, we were absurdly romantic," Beryl retorted.
She sat down at her dressing table as she spoke, and as if she deliberately changed the subject she said, "I think I shall ask Gallen to give me sapphires as a wedding present. Sapphires are very becoming to fair haired women."
"We were talking about Lord Newall," Torilla reminded gently.
"I know," Beryl answered, "but we have really exhausted everything there is to say about him. His kisses are entrancing, but he has little else to recommend him."
Torilla gave a little cry.
"Don"t talk like that, Beryl," she begged. "It is hard and horrid and so unlike you used to be."
"Sometimes I feel hard and horrid," Beryl answered, "and I feel that life has paid me a shabby trick."
Torilla was surprised.
"How a what do you mean?"
"I"m talking nonsense," Beryl replied quickly, "I am tired. Go to bed, Torilla. There is another party tomorrow night and the night after that, and I want you to look your best."
Torilla knew their conversation was over, but, when she went to her own room, she lay for a long time thinking about Beryl and praying for her.
She certainly did not look, at the Melchester Ball, as if life had brought her anything but gaiety and beauty that made her outshine every other woman present.
With her gown embroidered with diamante, with real diamonds round her neck and in her hair, Beryl glittered like a Fairy Queen. She was besieged by men wishing to dance with her, while Lord Newall, looking dark and Byronic, glowered ferociously.
It seemed quite obvious that Beryl was enjoying herself and Torilla found that she too was having a success.
In another of the beautiful gowns that Beryl had given her she did not feel insignificant among the elegant ladies glittering with jewels and eyeing each other with feline spitefulness.
Just occasionally Torilla found herself thinking that just a few of the diamonds they wore round their long necks or which hung from their ears like small chandeliers would keep a dozen miners" families in comfort for at least a year.
Then she remembered Abby"s admonitions and forced herself to forget Barrowfield and to listen to the charming words that were being said to her by every man with whom she danced.
It was very hot in the ballroom and Torilla allowed herself to be persuaded to seek the coolness of the air in the large garden that surrounded the whole house.
If the Prince had made the gardens of Carlton House into a romantic bower, Lady Melchester had tried to out-do him. There were not only artificial streams with lights turning the water to different colours, there was a fountain which sprayed perfume instead of water and which was illuminated to look like a spray of liquid gold.
There was artificial fruit hanging from some of the trees that when picked proved to be packets of bonbons or small amusing trinkets.
"It is all very imaginative," Torilla commented to her partner.
"And all very expensive," he laughed. "Let"s hope His Royal Highness being out-rivalled does not try to surpa.s.s such originality. He might decide to give all his guests expensive pictures or pieces of cla.s.sical sculpture."
"It would be a lovely idea," Torilla laughed.
"Until the bills came in a which of course would never be paid."
They both laughed again, then, as they reached a seat that was unoccupied, the gentleman with whom she had been dancing, asked "Shall I get you a gla.s.s of champagne? I must admit to feeling very thirsty myself."
"A gla.s.s of lemonade would be delightful," Torilla replied, "and I will wait here until you return."
"That is a promise. Don"t let anyone steal you away or I shall be obliged to threaten him with pistols at dawn!"
Torilla laughed as he hurried away.
He was rather an amusing man whom she had danced with at various parties, and although he paid her plenty of compliments he did not actually flirt with her, which she found a relief.
She was surprised to find that quite a number of men professed themselves to be in love with her a and one or two she thought were actually sincere.
For some reason, however, the moment their compliments became anything more than a polished and conventional exchange of words, she found herself shrinking inside and making every effort later to avoid them.
She supposed it was shyness and yet at the same time she was aware that what she shrank from was love, although she knew that Beryl would laugh at her for being foolish.
Several of the men who proposed marriage were, she imagined, extremely eligible, and she should in fact have been very grateful that they should even consider her as a wife.
But she knew, almost as soon as a certain look appeared in their eyes, that she could never in any circ.u.mstances consider them as a husband.
She did not know why she was so certain, but the conviction was there and there was nothing she could do about it.
"I thought Lord Arkley seemed very attentive to you tonight," the Countess had said the previous evening as they were driving home.
Torilla looked embarra.s.sed, but the Countess had gone on, "He may be a little old for you, but it would be a good marriage. He was married when he was very young, but his wife died two years later and there were no children."
She considered for a moment, then she added, "Yes, I think Arkley would do you well. I shall ask him to dinner before the Dorchester"s Ball and try to find out if his intentions are serious."
"No a please, Aunt Louise, please a please do nothing of the sort," Torilla begged. "Even if a Lord Arkley asked me to a marry him I would not a accept him."
"Would not accept him?" the Countess repeated, her voice rising. "What on earth do you mean by that, Torilla?"
"He is very a pleasant," Torilla said hesitatingly. "But I a know I could never a love him."
"Love!" the Countess said sharply. "The sooner you get rid of such ridiculous romantic notions the better!"
"Torilla is an idealist, Mama," Beryl interposed. "She has always sworn that she will never marry a man unless she loves him. I think you are wasting your time in trying to persuade her into considering Lord Arkley. "
"Torilla should realise," the Countess had retorted sharply, "that it is the duty of every young girl to make a good marriage by the time she is nineteen and Torilla is nearly that already."
"I would not wish a " Torilla began.
"In your circ.u.mstances," her aunt interrupted, "without money and with little to recommend you except your good looks, you must be grateful if you find a husband who will care for you and keep you in comfort."
Beryl laughed.
"I seem to have heard you, Mama, giving me this sort of lecture when I first came out."
"Fortunately you were intelligent enough to realise that I was talking good common sense," her mother replied. "There were times this last year when I thought you were throwing away your chances, but I admit I was wrong. You waited, then Gallen came along, and what mother could ask for a better marriage for her daughter?"
There had been an almost ecstatic note in the Countess"s voice.
Then she said in a different tone, "Where you are concerned, Torilla, it is quite different. You cannot afford to wait and the sooner you bring Lord Arkley to heel the better!"
"Aunt a " Torilla began, only to receive a sharp kick from Beryl under the carriage rug that made the words die on her lips.
"It is no use arguing with Mama," Beryl had said when they reached Curzon Street and gone up to bed together. "Whatever you say to the contrary, she will only think you half-witted."
"I don"t wish her to speak to Lord Arkley, as I am sure she intends to do," Torilla insisted in a frightened voice.
"Listen, dearest," Beryl said, "it does not have to be Lord Arkley, if you dislike him. But you know as well as I do that this is a big opportunity for you to find a husband."
She added almost sternly, "Do you really want to go back to the North and meet no one and see n.o.body of any importance? It cannot be very amusing in Barrowfield or whatever it is called."
She saw the expression on Torilla"s face and put her arms around her.
"I love you, Torilla. I want you to be married and then we can both have fun together. I have really missed you these last two years."
"And I have missed you," Torilla said truthfully.
"Then marry somebody quickly," Beryl admonished, "so that we can move in the same Social world. Arkley is not a bad catch and other men like him, which is important."
She smiled and her eyes were twinkled as she added, "And far safer than if it is women, which is my problem!"
Torilla had laughed at that, she could not help it.
Beryl kissed her cheek.
"Think about it, Torilla, and be sensible. I know if Aunt Elizabeth was alive she would want you to have a home of your own."
Beryl"s words echoed in Torilla"s mind long after she went to bed and she had found herself talking to her mother as she so often did.
"I know you would want me to get married, Mama, but not to someone I did not love a but perhaps I shall never love anyone as you loved Papa?"