Mrs. Pope was only a day or so ahead of a cloud of callers. The Carmel
girls followed close upon her, tall figures of black fur, with
costly-looking muffs and a rich glitter at neck and wrist. Marjorie
displayed her house, talking fluently about other things, and watching
for effects. The Carmel girls ran their swift dark eyes over her
appointments, glanced quickly from side to side of her rooms, saw only
too certainly that the house was narrow and small----. But did they see
that it was clever? They saw at any rate that she meant it to be clever,
and with true Oriental politeness said as much urgently and
extravagantly. Then there were the Rambord girls and their mother, an
unobservant lot who chattered about the ice at Prince's; then Constance
Graham came with a thoroughbred but very dirty aunt, and then Ottiline
Winchelsea with an American minor poet, who wanted a view of mountains
from the windows at the back, and said the bathroom ought to be done in
pink. Then Lady Solomonson came; an extremely expensive-looking fair
lady with an affectation of cynicism, a keen intelligence, acutely apt
conversation, and a queer effect of thinking of something else all the
time she was talking. She missed nothing....
Hardly anybody failed to appreciate the charm and decision of Marjorie's
use of those Bokhara embroideries.
They would have been cheap at double the price.