“Hallo, hallo! Sitting all alone in the dark, darling?”
Reggie came happily into the studio. He was in evening dress with his
rich fur-lined coat thrown open. He sat down on the arm of my chair.
“I’m awfully disappointed, darling,” he said. “I had been looking
forward to spending the evening here by the fire with you, but I’m
obliged to go with my partners and a party of friends to a dinner they
are giving, and I expect to meet that member of Parliament I told you
about. If I can break away early, I’ll come back here and say good-night
to the sweetest girl in the world. So don’t go home to-night, as we can
have a few moments together anyway.”
I was left once more alone. I sat there staring into the fire. Why did
Reggie never take me to these dinners? There were always women there.
Why was I not introduced to his friends? Why did he leave me more and
more alone like this? He was jealous of every man who spoke to me, and
yet he left me alone and went to dinners and parties where he did not
think I was good enough to go.
Some one was rapping on the door, and I called:
“Come!”
It was Lu Frazer.
“Why, Marion Ascough, what are you sitting alone in the dark for? Where
is the fair one of the golden locks?”
Lu was shaking the snow from her clothes, but she stopped suddenly when
she saw my face.
“What are you crying about?”
“I’m not crying. I’m just yawning.”
Lu put her hands on my shoulders.
“What’s his nibs been saying to you now?” she asked.
I shook my head. Somehow I didn’t feel like confiding even in Lu this
night.
“Look here, Marion,” she said, “I met an old admirer of yours as I came
here to-night, and he asked me to try and get you to go with him and a
friend to a little supper. He said you knew his friend--that he’d bought
some pictures from you. His name’s Davidson. Folks do say that his
father was the Prince of Wales and that he got fresh with one of the
Davidson girls that time when he was in Canada and their father
entertained him, and they pass this Davidson off as a younger son of the
family. I told Colonel Stevens I’d do what I could. Now, I saw that
Bertie getting into a sleigh all rigged up in evening clothes and with
that Mrs. Marbridge and her sister. Folks are saying he’s paying
attention to the latter lady. I said to myself, when I saw him: ‘What’s
sass for the goose is sass for the gander.’ Marion, you’re a fool to
sit moping here, while he is enjoying himself with other women.”