"Take another cigarette. I"ll tell you about my husband," she said.
CHAPTER XX
Mrs. Shiffney, who was perpetually changing her mind in the chase after happiness, changed it about India. After all the preparations had been made, innumerable gowns and hats had been bought, a nice party had been arranged, and the yacht had been "sent round" to Naples, she decided that she did not want to go, had never wanted to go. Whether the defection of a certain Spanish ex-diplomat, who was to have been among the guests, had anything to do with her sudden dislike of "that boresome India," perhaps only she knew, and the ex-diplomat guessed. The whole thing was abruptly given up, and January found her in Grosvenor Square, much disgusted with her persecution by Fate, and wondering what on earth was to become of her.
In such crises she generally sent for Susan Fleet, if the theosophist were within reach. She now decided to telegraph to Folkestone, where Susan was staying in lodgings not far from the house of dear old Mrs.
Simpkins. Susan replied that she would come up on the following day, and she duly arrived just before the hour of lunch.
She found Mrs. Shiffney dressed to go out.
"Oh, Susan, what a mercy to see you! We are going to the Ritz. We shall be by ourselves. I want you to advise me what to do. Things have got so mixed up. Is the motor there?"
"Yes."
"Come along, then."
At the Ritz, although she met many acquaintances, Mrs. Shiffney would not join any one for lunch or let any one join her.
"Susan and I have important matters to discuss," she said, smiling.
Her face and manner had completely changed directly she got out of the motor. She now looked radiant, like one for whom life held nothing but good things. And all the time she and Susan were lunching and talking she preserved a radiant demeanor. Her reward was that everyone said how handsome Adelaide Shiffney was looking. She even succeeded in continuing to look handsome when she found that Susan had made private plans for the immediate future.
"I"ve promised to go to Algiers," Susan said over the _oeufs en cocotte_, when Mrs. Shiffney asked what was to be done to make things lively.
"To Algiers! Why? What is there to do there? You know it inside out."
"Scarcely that. I"m going to stay with Charmian Heath."
Mrs. Shiffney"s large mouth suddenly looked a little hard, though her general expression hardly altered.
"Oh! Whereabouts are they?"
"Up at Mustapha, not far from Mrs. Graham."
"They say he"s trying to write an opera. Poor fellow! The very last thing he could do, I should think. But she pushes him on. Since that song of his--I forget the name, heart something or other--her head has been completely turned about his talent. The fact is, Susan, Sennier"s sudden fame has turned all their heads, the young composers, _les jeunes_, you know. They are all trying to write operas. In Paris it"s too absurd! But an Englishman, with his temperament, too--Oliver Cromwell in Harris tweed!--she must be mad. Of course even if he ever finishes it he will never get it produced."
Susan quietly went on eating her eggs.
"A totally unknown man. She thinks that song has made him quite a celebrity. But n.o.body has ever heard of him."
"n.o.body had ever heard of Sennier till that night at Covent Garden,"
observed Susan, lifting a gla.s.s of water to her lips.
"Oh, yes, they had!"
Mrs. Shiffney"s musical pa.s.sion for Sennier often led her to embroider facts.
"Among the people who matter in Paris he was quite famous."
"Oh, I didn"t know that," said Susan, without a trace of doubt or of sarcasm.
"How could you? Besides, Sennier is a great man, the only man we have, in fact. So you were going to stay with the Heaths?"
"I am going. I promised Charmian Heath."
"When?"
"In about ten days, I think. My mother is rather unwell, only a bad cold. But I like to be at Folkestone to help Mrs. Simpkins."
"Susan, what an extraordinary person you are!"
"Why?"
"You are. But you are so extraordinary that I could never make you see why. Sandringham and Mrs. Simpkins! There is no one like you."
She branched off to various topics, but presently returned to the Algerian visit.
"What do you think of Charmian Heath, Susan--really think, I mean? Do you care for her?"
"Yes, I do."
"Oh, I don"t mean as a theosophist, I mean as a human being."
Susan smiled. "We are human beings."
"You are certainly. But, of course, I know you embrace Charmian Heath with your universal love, just as you embrace me and Mrs. Simpkins and the King and the crossing-sweeper at the corner. That doesn"t interest me. I wish to know whether you like her as you don"t like me and the King and the crossing-sweeper?"
"Charmian Heath and I are good friends. I am interested in her."
"In a woman!"
"Greatly because she is a woman."
"I know you"re a suffragette at heart!"
They talked a little about politics. When coffee came, Mrs. Shiffney suddenly said:
"I"ll take you over to Algiers, Susan."
"But you don"t want to go there."
"It"s absurd your going in one of those awful steamers from Ma.r.s.eilles when the yacht is only about half an hour away."
"Half an hour! I thought she was at Naples."