Page:Castles--The composer.djvu/18

6 "I wore white muslin, with a blue sash—so silly, being brunette, and cerise was my colour. But my mother would have it. 'There is only one dress for a young girl,' she used to say, 'and that's white muslin with a blue sash.' I was just eighteen and quite lovely, dear! When my mother brought me up to Lady Warborough—that was the grandmother of the present man, Johnny—she just took my hand, and looked at my mother and said: Je vous fais mon compliment! And Dizzy was standing beside her, and he said: 'A Titian  dressed by Reynolds!' He did indeed, Johnny!"

"Oh, I say," said Sir John, "what a pretty girl!"

The car had drawn up below the terrace steps; and over the balustrade a face had looked down upon him as they swept past. He leaned out—the open window was on his side, but the face was gone. A flash of bright eyes, a smile of red parted, eager lips; a face delicate and pearl-hued, illumined by that smile. Honest Johnny, twenty-four, felt a little giddy as he flung his long legs out of the motor.

"Good gracious, child, what are you gaping at? Aren't you going to help me down?"

There was some difficulty in getting Lady Caroline up the steps to where the hostess stood with her smiling welcome; but Johnny accomplished the task manfully. Lady Warborough, tall, gracious, still youthful enough to be known as young Lady Warborough in spite of her grown-up daughters, received them both as if the whole entertainment had been planned in their honour. Lady Caroline was an old friend of the family; and Johnny