FELICITY AND HER CLIENTS
When Felicity woke up in her enormous, over-draped, over-decorated,
gilded, carved, and curved bed she was immediately as wide awake as
though she had been up several hours.
There was no slow rousing to the realities of life, no sleepy yawning or
languid return from a land of dreams. She dashed the hair out of her
eyes, at once put on her glasses (for in private she was short-sighted),
and began immediately and systematically to tell her fortune by cards.
She did this regularly every morning. It was a preliminary to her day's
campaign, when Everett came in with the tea and letters, drew aside the
heavy blue curtains, embroidered all over with gold fleur-de-lys, and
let in a ray of April sunshine. According to her usual practice,
Felicity kept up a running commentary on her correspondence.
"From darling Chetwode.--'My own beautiful little angel, It is
quite'--what's this? hop-picking? no--'heart-breaking that I can't get
back to you for another week. Tobacco Trust was beaten by a short head,
as of course you know, but Onlooker is a dead certainty for to-morrow.
Will wire result.
"'I saw a most marvellous old cabinet in a cottage near here'--he
_would_!--'an extraordinary bargain. It will just go in the corner
of----'" She put the four closely written sheets down and opened some
more envelopes.
"'Lady Virginia Creeper at home. Five to seven.' Well, I can't help it.
Let her stop at home. It's the best place for her.
"'Dearest Lady Chetwode, you haven't forgotten, I am sure, that you
promised to see me at three to-morrow. I come to you with my tears. You
are the greatest adviser and consoler in all heart troubles. Of late I
have been enamoured of sorrow. But for your wonderful "Bureau de
Consultation Sentimentale," where should we poor sentimentalists be!
Agatha has been simply brutal to me lately. I can find no other word. I
look forward to pouring my grief into your shell-like ear. I will bring
my new song, "Cruel as the Grave."' How cheering! Jasmyn Vere is
perfectly absurd about Agatha. He's a bore, anyhow.
"'Dear old girl; I'm coming to lunch to-day. Everything is rather
rotten. I have news of HER. Your aff. brother Savile.'
"'Darling Felicity, be a perfect angel and let my maid see your mauve
tea-gown. I know you are so good-natured or I wouldn't dare to ask. I am
very anxious about HIM. Oh, why are men always the same? I found out
that the wretch instead of being ill, the other day, had taken that
awful Lucy Winter to a picture-gallery. What a girl! All red hair and
eye-glasses. Let me see you soon. Your devoted friend, Vera Ogilvie.' I
am sure Vera needn't worry. Lucy Winter was evidently wild about F. J.
Rivers last night. I must tell her. What stupid letters! Oh! here's a
new handwriting.
"'98 Half Moon Street, 2 o'clock a.m.--Dear Lady Chetwode, I should be
counting the minutes till 4.30, but they pass too slowly to be counted.
It's thirteen hours and a half, anyhow. I can't believe I shall really
see you again. How eternal yesterday was! Why do the gods follow each
feast day with a fast? By the way, I have a little Romney here so
marvellously like you that you really ought to see it.'" Felicity
smiled. "Steady! Rather a nice handwriting. 'Sincerely yours, Bertie
Wilton.' Very promising. 'P.S. I have left a long space between the
lines so that you should read between them.' Everett, I'll wear my
tailor-made dress this morning and for lunch. The mauve tea-gown at
four. I'm only going to the theatre to-night. Let me see, what is it?
Oh! the St. James's. The white _crepe de chine_. Then, remind me to wire
to the Creepers on the evening of their afternoon to say I have a chill.
Have some gardenias and lilies for the drawing-room, and let me see
them. There's the telephone! I suppose Chetwode has rung me up again."
Then followed a one-sided conversation through the telephone, which was
fixed by the side of the Louis Quinze bed.
"Yes, darling.... Oh, all right.... Didn't he?... I say, you might come
back soon.... I really shouldn't bother about that screen.... What?... I
said screen, not scream.... We have heaps more than we want already....
Oh! and ever so many people are coming this afternoon.... A perfectly
new young man.... What?... Oh, not bad!... Safety in numbers?... Even if
you take the numbers one at a time?... Good-bye."
Savile at lunch was gloomy and taciturn. Absently he had partaken three
times of a certain favourite dish, made of chestnuts and cream,
repeatedly proffered, with _empressement_ and a sort of respectful
sympathy, by Greenstock. Then he pushed his plate away, and said when
they were alone--
"Funny! I can't eat a thing! Sylvia says I live on nothing but oranges.
Pretty rotten sign, eh? Here's what I've heard about HER."
He took out of his purse a neatly-cut-out paragraph from _The Queen_. It
stated that Madame Patti had been warmly greeted by all the village of
Craig-y-nos, and was about to give an afternoon concert there for the
benefit of the poor.
"I shan't have another chance to see HER before I go back," said Savile,
looking steadily at his sister.
She followed his idea in a second. "All right! Poor boy! There's no
great harm. Shall I give you the--change"--(to Savile, Felicity always
spoke of money as change)--"to run up to Wales and hear her sing, and
then come back the same evening? It doesn't really matter what time you
arrive home, you see. You can stay with me. I'll tell papa you're going
to a concert and I want you to stay with me."
Savile was nearly purple with joy. "Would you really? What bricks girls
can be!" He shook hands with her with intense self-restraint, and
murmured, "I shan't forget this, old girl."
Felicity completed the arrangements, and Savile left, a very happy boy.
At three o'clock Felicity, in her wonderful orchid-mauve tea-gown, was
conversing pathetically with Jasmyn Vere, one of the habitues of what
her friends called her sentimental bureau.
He was not one of her favourite clients. He was egotistical, and his
mania for Agatha was becoming rather a bore. Agatha was a plain,
muscular, middle-aged widow who drove him to distraction by her temper
and her flirtations. Felicity only stood it at all because he sang and
played beautifully, imitated popular actors in his lighter moments, and
gave amusing dinners at restaurants.
"What would you have done?" he said. "By mistake, Agatha posted this
letter to me!"
He took out of a pale grey morocco case a note with "Stanhope Gate" and
a large "A" on it in scarlet and black.
She read--
Dear Bob,
Excuse rush. All rubbish about Jasmin. He's a hopeless idiot, but a
good old sort. Mind you fetch me in time for Lingfield Races
to-morrow and put me on to a good thing.
Yours,
AGATHA.
Felicity handed it back.
"Just fancy, Lady Chetwode! I confronted her with this. She had put it
in the wrong envelope and sent a note meant for me to Captain
Henderson. She only roared with laughter. I broke it off finally and she
said I should probably break it on again next day."
"And did you?"
"Nothing of the kind. I went away and wrote her a really beautiful
letter. I said that I would wipe out the past and begin afresh if she
promised never even to recognise Captain Henderson again in the
street--or anywhere."
"What did she say, Mr. Vere?"
"Say! She wired 'Sorry imprac.' So it's all over. Now, what do you
advise?"
"If you would only leave her alone for about two minutes, she would come
round all right; she is so used to you. Or, make her jealous."
"Well, I hope you'll forgive me, but I did try that. In our last
interview I said I was coming to see you, and that you were a really
womanly woman."
"Oh, thanks very much," said Felicity angrily. "What did she say to
that?"
"Laughed that awful laugh of hers, and said I need not worry, as you
were very busy."
"She was perfectly right, I am," said Felicity. "Have you left her alone
since that?"
"Practically. At least, I only sent her a little thing I thought she'd
like."
"A diamond horse-shoe--by any chance?"
"Oh, just a trifle as a souvenir of our long friendship. Then I
suggested we should have one final meeting--a _diner d'adieu_."
"And she didn't send the trinket back, and she didn't refuse? Oh, you're
all right!"
"I am not all right, dear Lady Chetwode."
"When are you going to see her again?"
"I'm bound to say that I hope to see her next Saturday evening. But just
think! She has actually spoken, written of me as a 'hopeless idiot'!"
"Yes. I understood that."
"Should a man forgive such a thing?"
At this stage Felicity's eyes began straying to the clock. "Certainly,
if it is true," she said absently.
He left a copy of "Cruel as the Grave" when he went, with many
expressions of gratitude, and Felicity said to herself: "What an
extraordinary thing! What can he see in Agatha? What can Agatha see in
Bob? And there is Vera Ogilvie--really pretty and charming--worrying
herself about that dull Captain Henderson, who makes love to every woman
he sees, and doesn't care two straws about her." At this point she took
up a very handsome photograph of her husband, and looked at it until the
tears came into her eyes. It was a charming portrait.
When Bertie Wilton arrived, she brightened up a good deal. He looked
better in the afternoon than in the evening, she thought. She liked his
bright, intelligent face. And confidences about others do pall after a
time. The reaction from Jasmyn made her perhaps more encouraging than
she was aware of--she was so depressed about Chetwode's absence. After
tea and preliminary platitudes, Mr. Wilton sat beside her on the sofa
and took her hand.
"What on earth do you mean by that?" she said, looking more annoyed than
surprised.
"You said yourself that life was so short the other night! I haven't the
time--I tell you frankly--to be a tame cat and a hanger-on and one of
your collection!"
"Really! Sorry you're so busy. I looked upon you as one of the
unemployed." She was amazed at his tactlessness.
"You were mistaken. When a thing like this happens--a genuine
_coup-de-foudre_--a man is only a fool who doesn't face it and admit it
at once. I care for you really, though I haven't known you--very long.
I'll cut it out of my life unless you give me ever such a distant hope
that you will--like me--too."
"Will you look at my husband's photograph, Mr. Wilton? He's really very
handsome--and particularly amusing. We've been married just thirteen
months."
"An unlucky number! Yes, I know he's handsome--and, no doubt,
delightful. But he isn't here."
"What's that got to do with it?"
"Everything. You know he might be here--with you, and he's not."
"That's his business."
"And mine!" audaciously answered the young man.
"Will you please not take my hand, and recollect that I'm not a
housemaid 'walking out' with her young man?"
He did not obey her.
"I should never have suspected you of such bank-holiday manners," she
said, at once amused and angry.
"You can call it bank-holiday or anything you like--and if you don't
like it I'm sorry, but really you deserve it! You may drive people mad
with your little ways, and they may stand it if they like. I can't."
Evidently Mr. Wilton was losing his head. It was quite interesting.
"I saw from the first that firmness is my only chance with you," he said
half apologetically. He then made the terrible mistake of trying to kiss
her. She slid away like an acrobat, pressed the electric bell, and sat
down again with a heightened colour.
"I beg your pardon," said Wilton humbly. "I know it was very wrong. I
couldn't help it. You needn't ring and turn me out of the house,--I'll
go."
"I wasn't going to."
Greenstock appeared.
"Please bring a glass of iced-water," said Felicity in clear crystal
tones.
"Oh, Lady Chetwode!"
During the moment's somewhat awkward interval Felicity stroked up her
hair and looked tenderly at Lord Chetwode's photograph.
When the iced-water was brought in he drank it.
She burst out laughing.
"What a penance! Just after tea! Well, I'll forgive you this once only.
I think it unspeakable. You're of course very young, so you shall have
another chance. You never will be like that again, will you?"
He stood up.
"I never will. I'm very sorry. I quite understand. I can see you are
accustomed to invertebrate admirers who spoil you. I made a mistake,
because you see I don't happen to be one."
"Chetwode isn't invertebrate!"
Bertie bowed. "Ah, I dare say not. Of that I have no kind of doubt. But
you see, he's not here. He's never here. Good-bye."
He took his leave in a very final manner.
Felicity thought over the question with interest. She was sure she would
never see Wilton again. Why was Chetwode always away like this?
Everybody noticed it.
* * * * *
When Felicity came back from the St. James's Theatre that night she
thought that she was a little in love with Bertie Wilton. But she knew
she wasn't.