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CHAPTER XIX
TONY HEARS SOME NEWS
Looked up to, envied and quoted, then?
What good does that do now I’m strong to stand
And need no more fence for my heart and hand?
Trent Stoke belongs to the girl, no doubt,
Do I look as if I would turn her out?
My life does very well for me———
Lord Trent may go to Hell for me!”
It was near the end of Tony’s whirling month, and perilously near the end of his cash, when they next were placed side by side. In the fortnight’s interval they had merely seen each other, barely exchanging a word or two; in a crowd it is easy not to talk. But here, at a theatre-party, they were helpless. It was very annoying.
In the first interval Pamela made a brave effort to start a new subject, and to talk as if she did not dislike this man.
“I can see Millicent Blount in the box on the right, she said. “Lady Blount—do you know her? I didn’t think she was back from her honeymoon.”
Tony didn’t know her. She was remarkably good-looking.
“Yes, isn’t she? She was Millicent Travers—she is older than I am, but I know her very well. Her people were glad when she married Lord Blount, because there had been some unfortunate affair before—some man who wasn’t a gentleman at all—and it would never have done. Of course Millicent was very young then———”
During Pamela’s innocent monologue—she would never
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