He was so much in the
East, was he not? And she too had been in the East. (It was not
necessary to state that it had been in an excursion steamer which
allowed three days for Cairo, three for Constantinople.) The dear Prince
might possibly not remember her name, but she would never forget him, he
was so handsome and agreeable, such a romantic figure in the world; and
Alys was quite in love with his profile.
In the end, she discovered that Miss Bland was far more interested in
the elder brother than the younger, and in Prince Della Robbia's wife
rather than in Prince Vanno's fiancee; but it was too late to construct
an acquaintance, however slight, with the former; and certainly Miss
Bland had seemed interested in the details concerning Mary Grant. The
girl's name had struck her particularly, it appeared. She repeated it
several times over, saying, "Mary Grant--Mary Grant. I didn't know her
name was Mary." And Miss Bland had the air of being puzzled, as if there
was something in the name--a very common sort of name--which perplexed
her.
Luckily Mrs. Cayley-Binns and Alys were sure that the name was Mary.
They had seen it on a cheque, payable at a Monte Carlo bank, which Miss
Grant by request had given to a bazaar for a Mentone charity. Of course
people like that often were charitable; and in such persons it was more
selfish than generous when you came to think of it, as charity was
supposed to cover a multitude of sins.
Everywhere the engagement was talked of, for it was considered
extraordinary and hardly allowable that an eccentric, sensational sort
of girl about whose early career nobody knew anything should have
"gobbled up" a young man whose name was known throughout Europe.
Pages:
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433