Page:The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman.djvu/155

 would overcome that in time, I could not conceal from myself that, on the one occasion when she had dined with us en famille, she had flagged. . . I told her that I hoped to secure some of our common friends; and Will and I worked hard to arrange relays of the people who would best accord, so to say. . . I started with Major Blanstock, as he seemed her oldest friend. To do him justice, after the first meeting at Connie Maitland’s house, I had never seen him with the jackals ; he didn’t pretend to be in love with her, he didn’t talk about the pearls of his friendship and he didn’t even refer to her as “Consuelo”. “I shall be delighted to come, if I can get away,” he said.

“Your fascinating young widow is coming,” I said, as a bait—though I felt that he had long ago lost interest in her. “My widow?,” he repeated. “I am alive—and unmarried, Lady Ann.”

“Silly man! Our Brazilian heiress,” I explained. “Oh! Mrs. Sawyer,” he said. “Is she Brazilian? I didn’t know that. But it’s not fair to embarrass her with my friendship. She is almost a stranger to me; I don’t know that she’s an heiress, I don’t even know that she’s a widow.”