Page:The Yellow Book - 07.djvu/172



By Netta Syrett

she is perfectly lovely," Mrs. Yeo exclaimed, enthusiastically.

She made a slight indicative movement towards the far corner of the drawing-room, where the folds of a white dress and the feathery edges of a fan were just visible from her corner of the sofa.

"Ah, I thought you would be surprised."

Mrs. Lockyer spoke in the proprietary tone of one who has discovered some priceless treasure and for the first time displays it to the gaze of the multitude.

"They are altogether an ideal couple, aren't they?" she continued. "I always say he is quite ridiculously good-looking —too handsome for a mere man!"

"They met in Rome, you say?"

"Yes, quite lately; only a few weeks ago, in fact, when the Armstrongs were travelling in Italy. He'd hardly known her a week before he proposed, and it's scarcely a fortnight now since the day they met—so her mother says. This is his last evening. He's going back to-morrow to Rome; he has some work to finish there, I understand