"I am told he has been seen with the Ricci."
Madame d'Estrees raised her shoulders this time in addition to her eyes.
Then her face clouded.
"I believe," she said, slowly, "that woman may come here this
afternoon."
"Is she a friend of yours?" Harman's tone expressed his surprise.
"I knew her in Paris," said Madame d'Estrees, with some hesitation,
"when she was a student at the Conservatoire. She and I had some common
acquaintance. And now--frankly, I daren't offend her. She has the most
appalling temper!--and she sticks at nothing."
Harman wondered what the exact truth of this might be, but did not
inquire. And as guests--including Colonel Warington--began to arrive,
and Donna Laura appeared and began to dispense tea, the
tete-a-tetewas interrupted.
Donna Laura's
salon was soon well filled, and Harman watched the
gathering with curiosity. As far as it concerned Madame d'Estrees--and
she was clearly the main attraction which had brought it together--it
represented, he saw, a phase of social recovery. A few prominent
Englishmen, passing through Venice, came in without their wives, making
perfunctory excuse for the absence of these ladies.
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