"There you are!" she said lightly, though there was an odd dash of pride in her voice. "Face cream, night and day cream, eyelash tonic, and all the rest of it! Of course, I'm only just starting--I'm not like those people who advertise in all the papers and charge about a guinea for a shilling jar; but my stuff is as good as theirs any day, and better, because it's pure. Look!" She took a lid off a little white pot with a mauve label and held it to Esther.
"Isn't that a glorious perfume?" she demanded. She sniffed it herself with relish. "And it's all my invention, and I'm as proud of it as a cat would be of nine tails. When I've got things a little more ship-shape, Micky's going to put it on the market for me. It wants a man behind all these sort of things you know. I can do all the donkey work, but I've got no head for business. I never know the difference between a loss and a profit. It was partly over this that I quarrelled with my people--they said it was low-down to make face cream and sell it--they're awful snobs! So I just cleared off and changed my surname and came here. I'm quite happy, and if I haven't got as much money as I had, I don't mind--I've got my liberty, and that's worth every thing."
"I think you're just wonderful," Esther said. She picked up a lid from one of the little pots and looked at the mauve and white label.
She looked at the glowing face opposite to her.
"Do you use it for your own skin?" she asked shyly.
Miss Mason chuckled; she pushed the tray to one side along the floor.
"I don't mind telling you that I've never used cream to my skin at all," she said. "But people think I do, and so there you are! Have some more tea?"
She refilled Esther's cup and lit another cigarette. "So that's what I am," she said. "And now go on, and tell me about yourself. You said you were at Eldred's!"
"Yes, I was there for two years. I rather liked it! I love pretty things, and I was in the workroom. They paid me quite well, too, though it was hard work, and then--well, then I left----" her voice changed subtly.
The query was only interested, and not at all impertinent.
"Well--well--I thought I was going to be married. He--well, he asked me to leave to marry him, and so I did...."