Page:O Genteel Lady! (1926).pdf/134

 'You have not, I hope, Lanice, ever let him so much as lay the weight of his hand upon you?'

Gathering affirmation from the girl's lovesick, tear-filled eyes and parted lips, she again abruptly changed her rôle from mentor to confidante. 'Why, of course, I understand, dear.' She almost winked at Lanice, as if she too could tell tales of embraces and feverish stolen kisses, as if Jones had often held her close to him on Miss Bigley's sun-drenched chaise-longue.

'But you see, Pauline, to-day I must go with him and find out what he intends of me.'

'Perhaps,' sighed Pauline almost hopefully, 'he is a wanton destroyer of female virtue.'

The younger girl went quite white. She gave a whimpering sigh like the ghost of a lost lady in a haunted chamber, and looked at Pauline in a way that would have wrung the heart of Sears Ripley.

'Let us talk calmly together.'

'No, no, not now. He'll be here in half an hour.' She wanted to get away from Pauline and her almost contagious ugliness. With her lace-edged handkerchief fluttering in her fingers, she fled the room.

Pauline, half hidden by the crimson curtains of the bow window, lay in wait for Jones. He came at last in a great glitter and jingle. Red Russian sleigh, silver bells, black satin horses. She drew a dirty fascinator over her head and hurried to the door.

'She will be out in a minute, Captain,' she said, and looked with more curiosity than distaste at the great