Thelma looked puzzled and inquiring. "To-night? What is it that we do? I forget! Oh! now I know--it is to go to Lady Winsleigh. What will it be like, Philip?"
"Well, there'll be heaps of people all cramming and crowding up the stairs and down them again,--you'll see all those women who have called on you, and you'll be introduced to them,--I dare say there'll be some bad music and an indigestible supper--and--and--that's all!"
She laughed and shook her head reproachfully. "I cannot believe you, my naughty boy!" she said, rising from her seat, and kneeling beside him with arms round his neck, and soft eyes gazing lovingly into his. "You are nearly as bad as that very bad Mr. Lorimer, who will always see strange vexations in everything! I am quite sure Lady Winsleigh will not have crowds up and down her stairs,--that would be bad taste. And if she has music, it will be good--and she would not give her friends a supper to make them ill."
Philip did not answer. He was studying every delicate tint in his wife's dazzling complexion and seemed absorbed.
"Wear that one gown you got from Worth," he said abruptly. "I like it--it suits you."
"Of course I will wear it if you wish," she answered, laughing still. "But why? What does it matter? You want me to be something very splendid in dress to-night?"
Philip drew a deep breath. "I want you to eclipse every woman in the room!" he said with remarkable emphasis.
She grew rather pensive. "I do not think that would be pleasant," she said gravely. "Besides, it is impossible. And it would be wrong to wish me to make every one else dissatisfied with themselves. That is not like you, my Philip!"
He touched with tender fingers the great glistening coil of hair that was twisted up at the top of her graceful head.
"Ah, darling! You don't know what a world it is, and what very queer people there are in it! Never mind! . . . don't bother yourself about it. You'll have a good bird's-eye view of society tonight, and you shall tell me afterwards how you like it. I shall be curious to know what you think of Lady Winsleigh."
"She is beautiful, is she not?"
"Well, she is considered so by most of her acquaintances, and by herself," he returned with a smile.
"I do like to see very pretty faces," said Thelma warmly; "it is as if one looked at pictures. Since I have been in London I have seen so many of them--it is quite pleasant. Yet none of these lovely ladies seem to me as if they were really happy or strong in health."