Just then, Patsy’s familiar voice announced “Miss Roberts.”
Drewena was standing by the door as the newcomer, somber of face even through her high, natural coloring, and as Drewena thought, all the more beautiful because of her stone-like gravity, entered the drawing room; for, dressed in a cunningly fashioned gown of silver cloth, she looked more like an impassioned Joan of Arc in mailed armor than a modern executive of lives. Around her throat lay her mother’s string of black pearls, and her hands were encased in an unusual muff of blue fox.
“I’m so glad you came after all, Roberta,” said the hostess quietly. “You have been keeping too much to yourself, and I’m sure that you’ll have a little fun to-night. Carrie is here—she’s the most amusing camp! And Kate, and Beulah, and Docky——”
“Damn them all!” interrupted Roberta. “Take me to that corner over there where no one is standing.”
Drewena saw the painful expression on her face and nodded agreement, sitting down with her for a moment.
“Is Martin coming to-night?” asked Roberta nervously.
“Why, yes,” said Drewena. “That is, I think so. I sent him a note, urging him to be here. I have such a pretty name for him.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” answered Roberta, a little absently, tapping her silver slipper against the side of her chair. “Is Rio coming?”
“Indeed not,” said Drewena, amazed at the question. “Ask that man up?—I should say not!”
“‘Man’—my petticoat!” observed Roberta. “What’s the matter with you, Drewena? _That_ one is dashed for fair! Her hard-boiled act doesn’t fool me a bit. She’s a damned _poseur_ and as full of bitchery as——”
“Stop shaking,” broke in Drewena. “For heaven’s sake! All the cats are beginning to gossip about the way you’re acting. See old Docky talking with her hand over her mouth? She knows perfectly well that I can read lips. If she hadn’t been a splendid surgeon in her day and attended my father years ago, I should never have invited her.”
And Docky was saying to the more elderly group clustered around her at this moment, “It’s shameful the way Roberta monopolizes Drewena’s time. In a way though, one can’t blame her. For dearies, Roberta hasn’t long to be a queen at the rate _she’s_ going!” Docky pulled her shawl more tightly about her neck.