He had supplied enough sable coat linings for
kings and ermine cloaks for queens to give him food for a lifetime of
authentic anecdotes. His acquaintance with royalties was genuine of its
kind, but it was not of a kind that appealed to the paying guests at
Lady Dauntrey's. Dodo turned a cold shoulder upon him, and for a day or
two gave her attention to the only other man in the house who pluckily
advertised himself as unmarried. He advertised himself also as a
millionaire, and not without reason, though Lord Dauntrey had cleverly
picked him up in the Casino. When he mentioned, however, that he was a
Sydney man, Miss Wardropp ceased to talk at him across the table. This
change of tactics her enemies attributed to fear that he "knew all about
her at home." But she told Mary that he had such slept-on looking ears,
he took away her appetite; and one needed all the appetite one could
muster to worry through a meal at the Bella Vista. Besides, she believed
that he had made his fortune by some awful stuff which kept hair from
decaying or teeth from falling off, and it did one no good to be seen in
the Casino with a creature like that. It was almost better to go about
with a woman, though she did hate being reduced to walking with a
female; it made a girl look so unsuccessful.
At length Dodo decided that, even for Mary's sake, she could no longer
"stick it out" at the Bella Vista. She felt, she said, so wretched that
she was "quite off her bonbons." The crisis came at luncheon and
indirectly through the marmoset.
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