“Did your he-virgin tell you the name of his sweetheart last night?”
“For God’s sake!” Sonia looked her astonishment. “Don’t tell me that’s the Babs whom the poor dear denounced so because she, as he so naïvely put it, had been unfaithful to him.”
“None other,” Ethel said shortly.
“What a small world this is,” Sonia chuckled. “The two babes from the woods certainly are learning city ways with a vengeance. When Frank and I teach them all we know they should be ready to go through marriage without boring each other.”
“I don’t think Babs will ever look at Bob again,” Ethel said slowly. “They’ll probably both be so ashamed when they get home that they won’t speak to each other.”
“Don’t be silly!” Sonia said vehemently. “This’ll be the best thing in the world that could happen to either one. They both had to learn what it’s all about. Your Babs will be around with a reward for me some day.”
“Tell me about Robert,” Ethel interjected. “How did he seem to feel about Babs?”
“He didn’t say a whole lot about it,” Sonia admitted. “We found more interesting things to do than talk about his sweetheart. He wanted to be all broken up about her, but I snapped him out of his gloom.”
“And he’s taking you to the ball at Brierly Manor to-night?” Ethel asked slowly.
“Circumstances permitting,” Sonia said huskily. She leaned forward so her lips were close to Ethel’s ear and spoke guardedly:
“I’m throwing a thing at my house in his honor this afternoon. We’ll be at the dance if we survive,” she added hopefully. Her eyes were bright and her lips twitched.
Ethel turned to look at her and surprised a strangely furtive gleam of passion in the slumbrous depths of Sonia’s eyes. She flicked her red tongue out to moisten her dry lips.
Ethel drew in her breath sharply and looked away. She had heard whispers of the orgiastic things Sonia sometimes arranged at her home.
“Would you like to come?” Sonia touched her shoulder. “A few extra girls are always in order,” she went on avidly. “Everyone will be masked... until the lights go out. After that it doesn’t matter.”
Her smile suggested a wild abandonment.
“And Robert will be there?” Ethel questioned queerly.
“He doesn’t know what I’ve arranged for him,” Sonia admitted complacently. “I told him I’d throw a little party. Better join us.”
“I will.” Ethel breathed faster. Sonia’s gaze held hers with hypnotic force. Her eyes spoke of mysteries which they would probe together. Of secrets which they would mutually comprehend.
“I’ll be there,” she said quickly. “But tell me more about Cousin Hattie. I know her too. I can’t imagine her at Mardi Gras.”
“I haven’t seen her since she wandered off with her Mr. Simpson,” Sonia admitted smilingly. “The Lord only knows where they ended up.”
“Mr. Simpson?” Ethel asked sharply. She laughed gayly. Could it be the same man? She remembered that was the name of the fellow whom Barbara had asked her to pick up at the station.
“Is he a widower?” she asked.
“I think so,” Sonia told her. “Cousin Hattie’s likely to get her eyes clawed out if he has a wife lurking in ambush. I know he spoke of a couple of kids... Boots and Buddie.” I remember the names because it seemed so funny to hear him say them.”
“That’s the same man.” Ethel laughed helplessly. “To think of those two together at Mardi Gras!”
“You couldn’t appreciate them without seeing them last night,” Sonia told her serenely. She arose. “I’ll expect you this afternoon,” she said with a meaning glance. “I’ve got to get away and prepare things a little bit.”
“I’ll be there,” Ethel promised. “And with a mask on.”
Chapter Seventeen
“We’ll have lunch in the garden,” Frank decided as he held the front door open for Barbara to enter. “You haven’t seen my garden,” he went on quietly. “I want you to. I think you’ll appreciate it. There’s a fountain and a great deal of shade. It’s quite a rendezvous for mocking birds, and I’ve had very good luck with my early flowers.”
Barbara drew in a deep breath and faced him candidly. “I’m sure that lunch in the garden will be quite nice... as a prelude,” she said softly.
“Exactly. I want this afternoon to be... perfection,” Frank said slowly. “I want it to be a jewel in your store of memories. A gleaming pearl which you can take out to fondle if life seems ever dreary to you.”
“You’re... quite understanding.” Barbara smiled at him bravely. “I... I think you’re the most... understanding person I ever met.”
“And you are the sweetest.” Frank smiled at her as he pulled a bell rope. “I’ll have Julia take you up and show you where you can freshen up a bit. Please get rid of that mask... and select anything you like if you wish to change.”
“You seem to have every facility for feminine comfort here in your bachelor abode,” Barbara said challengingly.
“Of course,” Frank acknowledged. “No use remaining a bachelor if one is not prepared to take full advantage of one’s estate. Oh, Julia,” he added as a trimly uniformed mulatto maid stood smiling in the doorway. “Take Miss Barbara up to the green room. See that she has anything she wants. And don’t be too long,” he warned Barbara. “I’ll go into conference with the cook and see what sort of Olympian luncheon can be arranged on the spur of the moment.”
“I’ll hurry,” Barbara assured him. She blew him a kiss as she followed the maid from the room and up the stairs which she had climbed the foregoing night.
Her heart was very light. The afternoon promised much. She refused to consider Bob. She thought only of herself and Frank. Frank had not asked her a single question on the ride to his house. Everything seemed to move toward a perfect adjustment.
She smiled happily at Julia as the girl opened a door and motioned her to enter. Then she gave a little gasp of delighted astonishment. The interior was a symphony in pastel shades of green. A boudoir of enchanted beauty. Walls, rugs, ceiling, furniture, decorations, all had been selected with the utmost discrimination to softly harmonize and achieve an effect of fairy-like splendor.
“It’s beautiful,” she exclaimed to Julia, clasping her hands and trying to see everything at once.
“Yas’m. Hit sho is.” Julia chuckled throatily. She moved sinuously across the room to open a paneled door. “Dis heah am de bafroom,” she announced. “An’ heah am sum things effen youall wants tuh change.” She stepped to another corner and drew back a drape of turquoise satin to disclose a vivid array of dainty gowns, lounging pajamas, robes, and negligees.
Barbara’s eyes sparkled recklessly as she stood in the center of the room. It was like being transported to a land of fantastic enchantment. There was a low vanity with triple mirrors at her left. An assortment of beauty lotions and perfumes were exquisitely displayed before the mirrors. She crossed to a chaise longue and dropped to its softness with a happy sigh.
“If you’ll draw me a bath,” she said slowly, “that’s all I’ll need you for.”
“Yas’m.” Julia smiled broadly and disappeared into the bathroom.
Barbara kicked off her slippers and peeled hosiery off slim legs. The oriental rug beneath her feet was luxuriously soft. She wriggled her toes appreciatively and sighed.
Julia’s beaming face appeared in the doorway. She held two crystal jars of bath salts in her brown hands! “Which youall like?” she asked dubiously.
“Let me smell them,” Barbara said eagerly. She felt like a small child suddenly set down in the midst of toyland.
Julia brought the jars smilingly and held them for Barbara’s inspection. One of rose quartz exuded a sweet and dreamy fragrance. The other was frosty green, giving forth a suggestion of piney woods and sunlight upon lush meadows.