t Vivian's curiosity had nerved her
to the step.

"Yes. So I said I was, and she was beginning to talk to me--quite
politely--but somehow as if she were taking me in all the time----"

Owen could well imagine how Lady Saxonby's eyes would scrutinize the
face of the girl with whom he had consoled himself after her defection;
and he felt both anger and surprise at the thought of the scrutiny.

"Well, go on." Insensibly his tone had hardened, and Toni hurried on.

"Well, as she was talking to me, Lady Martin came up and tried to draw
her away, but she wouldn't go. So Lady Martin got vexed, I suppose, and
she bent down and whispered something to her--something about Eva,
because I heard the words 'necklace' and 'prison' quite plainly, and Eva
heard it too and turned crimson."

"And then?"

"Then Lady Saxonby looked straight at me and asked me to give you a
message."

"Did she?" Owen was astonished. "What was it?"

"She asked me to say that she hoped you had forgiven her and were as
happy as she is."

"Gad, what impertinence!" He flushed darkly. "She had no right to send
me such a message; it was nothing but a piece of unwarranted presumption
on her part."

"Was it?" Toni spoke rather wistfully. "You see, I didn't know at first
who she was, and I thought she meant to be quite decent. But then Eva
jumped up and said very quickly that the woman who had jilted an
honourable man ought to be ashamed of sending such a message through
that man's wife--and when I said something she told me that Lady Saxonby
was the woman who threw you over when you came home, for all the world
to see."

Owen, vexed to the soul by the thought of this miserable publicity, set
his teeth hard and said nothing; and Toni hurried on.

"Well, then there was a scene. Lady Saxonby turned on Eva quite
furiously, and said she had no right to talk of anyone being ashamed of
anything, seeing that everyone knew what she had done. And then all the
other women crowded round, and Eva lost her temper, and said it was
quite true and she had been in prison and was a criminal and all that,
but she'd sooner be that than a dishonourable, mercenary woman who would
jilt one man because another had more money and a title ... and ... oh,
there was a most frightful row, and the end was that the secretary
hurried up and asked me to take Eva away quickly before she said any
more. She was awfully cross, and said I ought not to have brought Mrs.
Herrick, and that La