"Why? It doesn't matter--now."

"Not to you, dear." Eva jeered lightly. "But the poor fellow is quite upset at meeting you again. He told me to-day he would never marry, and when I asked him why he said surely I could guess."

"Very impertinent of him," said Toni sharply; and Eva smiled inwardly.

"Oh, you mustn't blame him, Toni. I'm afraid it was my fault. We Irish are so sympathetic, you know--people always tell us their secrets. And anyhow there is nothing to be ashamed of. If he likes to go adoring you privately, you needn't be angry."

She said no more just then, for Toni's manner displayed her displeasure; but Eva smiled again when she was alone; and her warped and twisted mind seized eagerly on the idea of the very amusing situation which a little careful engineering might bring to pa.s.s.

Like all true intriguers, Eva kept her thoughts to herself; and Toni had not the faintest idea of the plans which her so-called friend turned about in her mind as the autumn days glided swiftly by under the golden and blue skies of a perfect season.

CHAPTER XXII

Owen and his wife were sitting at dinner one evening when a note was brought to Owen whose contents brought an angry exclamation to his lips as he, read.

"By gad, Toni, this is a bit thick! What the devil does the woman mean?"

Toni, suddenly pale, bit her lips, while her eyes filled with apprehension.

"I ... who is it from, Owen? What does it say?"

"There--read it yourself," said Owen, throwing the blue-grey sheet across the table. "I suppose there is some explanation, though I confess I can't understand it--yet."

Still deadly pale, her eyes shining like blue jewels, Toni took up the sheet and read the letter which Lady Martin had written with so much satisfaction a couple of hours earlier.

"DEAR MR. ROSE,

"After the occurrence of this afternoon I am sure you will see the advisability of Mrs. Rose's resignation from the Badminton Club. It is with great regret that I suggest this course; but after the scene which took place this afternoon, in the presence of a dozen members and several visitors, among them Lady Saxonby, a former friend of your own, I speak for the Committee when I request you to advise your wife to resign for the present season at least."

Toni laid the paper quietly down on the table and spoke to Owen with a mingling of terror and defiance in her tone.

"Well?"

"Well?" Owen reached across the table and picked up the letter. "What is all this about, Toni? Why should you be requested to resign?"

"I don't know"--Toni began in a lifeless voice; then suddenly--"yes, I do know. It's all a plot of Lady Martin's and Mrs. Madgwick's. They hate me, I always told you so--and now they want to make you hate me too."

"But what happened this afternoon?"

"Oh, it's a long story." Toni spoke recklessly. "To begin with, I was elected to the Club a long time ago--in September; and when Mrs. Herrick came home she wanted to be a member too. I tried to get her in, but they didn't want her----"

"Of course not." Owen frowned. "You never seem to understand, Toni, that all people are not so unworldly as you. It was a mistake for Mrs.

Herrick to attempt to enter a private club of that sort so soon. She should have waited until the scandal had blown over."

"Well, she was very disappointed about it. But every member can take a friend in once a month, so I took Eva this afternoon."

She broke off in dismay.

"Oh, Toni, will you never learn sense?" In spite of himself Owen spoke sharply. "Of all the foolish things to do! Well, what happened when you got there?"

"People weren't very nice." Toni flushed again at the memory of the whispers and averted faces which had greeted her entrance with Mrs.

Herrick. "But we just sat down and watched, and everything would have been all right if Lady Martin hadn't interfered."

"What did she do?"

"She had a woman with her--Lady Saxonby, someone called her--and she heard me addressed as Mrs. Rose, and turned to me at once and asked me if I were your wife."

"She did? By Jove!" Owen guessed that 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 t.i.tle ... 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 Lady Saxonby would be sure to talk, and the Club would be ruined."

"So you came away?"

"Yes. Eva was horribly upset--you know her nerves are all wrong--and she fainted dead away in the hall and they had to send for a doctor and we took her home ... and altogether," said Toni, breaking at last into tears, "it was a fearful scene, and I wish I'd never gone near the Club!"

"I wish to G.o.d you hadn't!" Owen sprang up, more upset than he cared to confess. He could visualize the whole scene: Vivian, with her beautiful, scornful face, taunting Eva, playing the hypocrite with Toni, and sending insulting messages to the man she had jilted; and the mere thought of the talk, the gossip, the raking up of old stories which would inevitably follow, set all his nerves jarring furiously.

Even the sight of Toni's tears did not soften his heart. Rather he felt exasperated with her, since it was her folly which had precipitated the whole scene.

"Come, don't cry," he said rather curtly. "You've done a very silly thing, and goodness knows where it will end; but it's no use crying and making yourself ill."