Barbara was a good sort; he remembered now he had met her before
somewhere. She had evidently taken to the new cousin; but Mildred had
not.
Hitherto Mildred had been the undisputed and acknowledged beauty of
every party, and she resented Theodora's presence because she was
clever enough not to have any illusions upon the matter of their mutual
looks. She saw Theodora was beautiful and young and charming, and had
every advantage of perfect Paris clothes. Uncle Patrick had been a fool
to ask her, and she must take measures to suppress her at once.
Sir Patrick, on the other hand, was very pleased with himself for having
given the invitation. He had made inquiries, and found that Josiah was a
man of great and solid wealth, with interests in several things which
could be of particular use to himself, and he meant to obtain what he
could out of him.
As for Theodora, no living man could do anything but admire her, and Sir
Patrick was not an Irishman for nothing.
Hector behaved with tact; he did not at once fly to his darling, but
presently she found him beside her. And the now habitual thrill ran over
her when he came near.
He saw the sudden, convulsive clasp of her little hands together; he
knew how he moved her, and it gave him joy.
The next batch of arrivals contained Lord Wensleydown, who showed no
hesitation as to his desired destination in the saloon. He made a
bee-line for Theodora, and took a low seat at her feet.
Hector, with more caution, was rather to one side. Rage surged up in
him, although his common-sense told him as yet there was nothing he
could openly object to in Wensleydown's behavior.
The little picture of these five people--Barbara engaging Josiah, and
the two men vying with each other to please Theodora--was gall and
wormwood to Mildred. Freddy Wensleydown had always been one of her most
valued friends, and for Hector she had often felt she could experience a
passion.
Lord Wensleydown had an immense cachet. He was exceedingly ugly and
exceedingly smart, and was known to have quite specially attractive
methods of his own in the art of pleasing beautiful ladies. He was
always unfaithful, too, and they had to make particular efforts to
retain him for even a week.
Hector knew him intimately, of course; they had been in the same house
at Eton, and were comrades of many years' standing, and until Theodora's
entrance upon the scene, Hector had always thought of him as a coarse,
jolly beast of extremely good company and quaintness. But now! He had no
words adequate in his vocabulary to express his opinion about him!