Page:Neith Boyce--The bond.djvu/103

Rh mured Page to Teresa. "Tell me what's the idea of that dress she's got on."

It was a dress of black velvet, and over it Alice wore a robe of Chinese embroidery of gold and purple.

"That dress means," said Teresa in the same tone, "that this is an artistic dinner. It is not a formal dinner, nor a commonplace society affair, but a gathering of intellectual people. You and I and Basil are artistic, you know, Mary Addams has written poems, and I imagine this has been got up to amuse the guests of honour, for certainly they are not artistic. As for the other two, you must tell me who they are."

"Alice said there was to be an African lion, and I imagine that's he, over there. He doesn't look very fierce, does he?"

"I wish I knew his name. Basil brought him to dinner unexpectedly one day last week. There was nothing to eat, and my aunt talked Woman Suffrage to us. I hoped I should never see him again, but I can see from his look that he remembers that steak. Basil said he was something in the East. Perhaps that accounts for his curious colour. Where did Alice find him?"

"I don't know. She picks up all sorts of people abroad. Have you noticed this person on my left?"

"Vaguely. From the coast of Bohemia?"