Page:Angna Enters - Among the Daughters.djvu/196

 have liked more time to study him and figure out what she didn't like about Paul Vermillion.

When Figente returned from seeing him off, the first thing he did was to put a narrow framed drawing on the mantelpiece. It was of a woman, her strapless black dress splashed on a slight diagonal as though the slim figure leaned back against its weight while advancing. The tilted triangular face with its pointed chin was a mask of narrowed eyes and fine half-smiling carmine lips, and over the broad forehead a swirl of copper-brown hair fell from a side part like a disarranged cockscomb over one eyebrow.

"What's that?" Lucy asked, determined not to speak of the departed visitor.

"It's a lithograph of Simone Calvette, the French singer, that Vermillion made from memory after the first time he saw her in Paris."

"Why, she's the one Beman wanted for the show but couldn't get because she wouldn't leave her lover. Tessie certainly was glad because she was dying for the part and Beman wouldn't give it to her until the last minute even if they are living together. He thought two of the songs were too sad for Tessie because she had no depth. Tessie's got a name for a lighter style, you see. But Tessie really wants to be a dramatic actress and she worked hard to get the sad songs just right. She went to a Russian coach every day. Simone Calvette isn't very pretty, is she?"

"She has great beauty," Figente said.

She took another look. "I suppose it doesn't show here."

"You are mistaken. Vermillion has realized her image evocatively."

"Is he her lover—the one she wouldn't leave?"

"He was, last I heard," Figente said, pleased at her discomposure. He was fond of Lucy and wanted the best for her—save Vermillion. She wasn't for Vermillion who had serious work to do and mustn't be distracted by a mistress who would require too much watching.

"Well," said Lucy crossly, "if she's so wonderful, what's he doing here?" These two certainly were special in Figente's eyes, she thought jealously.

"That, I should think, is his private concern."

"She looks older than Vermillion in this picture."

"She is, somewhat, not that it matters." 184