Page:The venture; an annual of art and literature.djvu/68

 Little Mrs. Villiers studied the menu, and Mrs. Lawrence was recalled to a sense of social duty by a remark from her too long neglected left hand neighbour.

Glancing at the small table at a later stage in the dinner, she was amused to see the young people chattering like a couple of children. Now that the boy had lost his awkward shyness, she thought him a somewhat engaging youth, frank, boyish and apparently enthusiastic; and his companion was charming.

She said as much to the lady on her left, whose assent was accompanied by a lowering of eyelids, and just the flicker of a smile at the corner of a humourous mouth.

The pension drawing-room was much like other pension drawing-rooms she found, later on, when everyone trooped towards it.

The usual little groups, which included the few men of the party, gathered round the card tables. Nondescript ladies with knitting, lined the walls. A strenuous, unattached woman studied Baedeker, and with her short-skirted friend, planned out a fierce day's work for the morrow. Groups of ordinary girls, chattered and giggled, and the usual people drew white shawls about their shoulders, discussed the treacherous nature of the Italian climate, grumbled about the food, and felt the customary draught.

Mrs. Lawrence moved her chair nearer to Mrs. Coltingham, the woman who had attracted her at dinner, and whose circumstances she had already discovered to be much like her own.