Janet gave Stella her breakfast next morning and took her to the Vicarage without seeing any of the others. When she returned they were all in the dining-room, Edna pouring out the tea and Geoffrey dispensing fishcakes as if there had been no midnight excursions. Edna looked a little more run-in-the-wash than usual, but her manner had not changed. She found small fidgeting faults with the service, the weather, and in fact with everything. The toast was not fresh – ‘Mrs Simmons will make it too soon. It is incredible how often one has to say a thing before one can get it done.’
Geoffrey gave his pleasant easy laugh.
‘Perhaps, my dear, if you didn’t say it quite so often-’
Her eyes were still reddened with last night’s weeping. They dwelt on him for a moment.
‘There are always things that have to be said, Geoffrey.’
He looked back at her, handsome and good-humoured.
‘Well, my dear, I can’t see the use of worrying yourself to skin and bone. You wear yourself out, and people mostly go on taking their own way. You can’t change human nature. Live and let live – but I suppose you’ll tell me to take my own advice and let you do as you wish. How many people are coming to this do of Adriana’s tomorrow?’
Meriel gave a scornful laugh.
‘Half the county, I should think! We shan’t be able to hear ourselves speak, and everyone will hate it like poison! But Adriana will have staged her come-back, which is all that matters – to her!’
Mabel Preston wanted to know who was coming.
‘It really is tomorrow, isn’t it? Will the Duchess come – did Adriana ask her? I saw her in the distance once, opening a bazaar. She was very distinguished-looking, but I wouldn’t have called her pretty. Of course you don’t need looks if you are a duchess. My goodness! I don’t suppose I’ve got anything half smart enough to wear! Not that these high-up people are always smart – not by any means. Why, I saw the old Duchess of Hochstein once at a charity bazaar, and she was really what you would call dowdy. Very stout, you know, and miles behind the fashion. And she was Royalty!’
Janet went up to the nursery. Ninian followed her.
‘We’ve missed the nine-thirty, but there’s the ten-twenty-nine. You’d better hurry up and dress.’
She turned on him, her eyes bright with anger.
‘Ninian, have done with this! It’s nonsense!’
He propped himself against the mantelpiece.
‘A serious expedition to town to take a flat is not my idea of nonsense.’
‘I have no intention of taking a flat!’
‘Haven’t you then? That’s very interesting. I’d better make a note of it in case I forget. Aren’t you making it a bit difficult? It’s not so easy to get anything done if you won’t let yourself have any intentions.’
‘Ninian!’
‘All right, all right, if you won’t come you won’t, but don’t say I didn’t ask you. And when I’ve taken the flat without anyone to help me, don’t tell me the linoleum is foul and you can’t live with the curtains – that’s all. I must rush for the bus.’
It was about an hour later that Meriel burst into the room. There was an unusual amount of colour in her cheeks and her voice was angry.
‘Really, Adriana is the limit!’
Janet finished writing, ‘Two blue smocks – won’t let down any more-’
Meriel stamped her foot.
‘Why don’t you answer me? What are you doing?’
‘There didn’t seem to be anything to answer. I’m making out a list of Stella’s clothes.’
‘Why?’
‘Star wants it.’
Meriel threw back her head and laughed.
‘Clothes! There’s no getting away from them! I’ve just come from Adriana’s room, and what do you suppose she’s doing? The place looks like a jumble sale – it’s got clothes laid out everywhere! And do you know what she’s doing with them? She is giving most of them away to that damned Mabel!’
‘Why shouldn’t she?’
Meriel made a dramatic gesture.
‘Because they are all perfectly good clothes! Because she might have asked me if I wanted any of them! Because all she cares about is putting herself over big and having that silly old fool gawping at her and saying how marvellous she is! Do you know, there’s a coat there I’ve wanted ever since she got it! I’d look wonderful in it, and Mabel makes everything look as if it had come out of a rag-bag!’
‘Why didn’t you ask Adriana to give it to you?’
‘I did – I did! And what do you suppose she said? I’ll swear she was just going to give it to Mabel, but when I asked for it she said oh, no, she didn’t think she could spare it! It was so nice for the garden, and she thought she would keep it in the cloakroom so as to have it handy if she just wanted to go out for a little!’
‘Well, that seems reasonable.’
‘It’s not – it’s not! She’s doing it to spite me! I tell you she got herself a new coat in town the other day – big soft checks of rust and brown! And this one is much more my style – bold squares of black and white with an emerald strip! I tell you it’s me! And as soon as my back is turned she’ll give it to Mabel! – I know she will! Unless – Oh, Janet, couldn’t you say something – couldn’t you stop her?’
‘No, I don’t think I could.’
‘You mean you won’t! You don’t care – nobody does!’
Janet controlled herself. She found it difficult to carry on a conversation with Meriel for more than five minutes without wanting to shake her. She thought regretfully that her moral character must be deteriorating. She made a real effort.
‘Now look here – why don’t you wait until Adriana is alone, and then ask her quietly about the coat? If she has said she wants to keep it for a bit she won’t have given it to Mabel, and you can’t very well ask for it now. But you could tell her how much you liked it and say you hope she won’t give it to anyone else.’
Meriel went into a pose.
‘And you think that would stop her? How little you know about us! If she thought I had set my heart on anything, it would just make her determined to keep it from me – yes, it would! And have me there to look on while she gave it away to somebody else! It is the sort of thing she would enjoy. You see, you have the ordinary commonplace mind – no, don’t be offended. It must be wonderful to take the everyday things as they come and never look beneath the surface or long to walk among the stars! I wish I could be like that, but it’s no use. And you can’t begin to understand Adriana or me, so it is no good your trying. But we see clearly enough about each other. She knows just what will hurt me, and I can see her enjoying it. It isn’t a happy thing to be able to see into someone else’s mind. Be thankful that you were not born that way. I see too much, and sometimes I shudder at what I see!’ She passed a hand across her eyes and went trailing out of the room.
When Janet had finished with Stella’s clothes she made her way to Adriana’s room. She found a scene which resembled a dress shop. Clothes of every description trailed from the chairs, hung over the back of the couch, and were piled wherever there was room to pile them. The coat described by Meriel was very much to the fore. Adriana was, in fact, in the act of slipping it off.
It was certainly striking. The sharp black and white of the twelve-inch checks, the vivid green of the stripe which crossed them, made Janet blink and reflect that it would certainly be a trying garment for poor old Mabel Preston. Much more suitable for Meriel really. She could see her looking dramatic and rather handsome in it.
Adriana waved it at her.
‘Just take this down when you go, and hang it in the cloakroom. I’m giving it to Mabel, and Meriel has been throwing a fit of the sulks about it, so I thought the best thing was to put it downstairs and go on wearing it once or twice myself. Mabel can use it too if she wants to, and then she can just take it with her when she goes and there won’t be any fuss. Meriel is the end when she sets her mind on anything!!’
Janet made her voice soft and coaxing.
‘She really does want it very badly.’
Adriana gave a dry laugh.
‘Did she send you to ask me for it?’
‘Well, I said I wouldn’t-’
Adriana tapped her on the cheek.
‘Don’t let people make use of you, or you’ll end up somewhere under foot. You can have no idea what Meriel is like when she wants something she can’t have.’
‘And she really can’t have the coat?’
Adriana frowned.
‘No, she can’t, and I’ll tell you why. It’s much too marked, and I’ve worn it too much myself. I don’t choose to have people say I keep Meriel so short she has to wear my cast-off clothes. And they would, you know. Everyone within a ten-mile radius has seen me in that coat, and you must admit that it’s once-seen-never-forgotten – now, isn’t it?’
As Janet turned to the door with the coat on her arm, Mabel Preston came in from the bedroom in a black and yellow cocktail dress which imparted a most unfortunate resemblance to a wasp. She had pulled her dry red hair into rather wild-looking puffs and she had been experimenting with Adriana’s rouge and lipstick. The result had to be seen to be believed, but it was obvious that she was extremely pleased with it. She came into the room with quite a good imitation of the mannequin’s glide.
‘There!’ she said. ‘How’s that? Pretty good, don’t you think? And nobody remembers black, so it will be all right if I wear it to your party tomorrow – won’t it, darling? And shan’t I feel smart! Quite new too! No one would think it had ever been worn – at least not unless you looked right into it, and nobody is going to do that.’
Janet made her escape. She took the coat along to the nursery, and when she went to fetch Stella from the Vicarage she carried it downstairs with her and hung it in the cloakroom.