I generally secure a couple of socially
budding Jews, because I feel the subscriptions for their charities which
they will pester whoever they do sit next for are better filched from the
Hebrew than from some pretty, needy Guardsman. Oh, what a life!"
She was so kind to me on the way back; she said she hated leaving me alone
on the morrow, and that I must settle now what I was going to do or she
would not go. I said I would go to Claridge's, where Mrs. Carruthers and I
had always stayed, and remain quietly alone with Veronique. I could afford
it for a week. So we drove there and made the arrangement.
"It is absolutely impossible for you to go on like this, dear child," she
said. "You must have a chaperone; you are far too pretty to stay alone in
a hotel. What _can_ I do for you?"
I felt so horribly uncomfortable I was really at my wits' end. Oh, it is
no fun being an adventuress, after all, if you want to keep your friends
of the world as well.
"Perhaps it won't matter if I don't see any one for a few days," I said.
"I will write to Paris. My old mademoiselle is married there to a
flourishing poet, I believe--perhaps she would take me as a paying guest
for a little."
"That is very visionary--a French poet! Horrible, long-haired, frowsy
creature! Impossible! Surely you see how necessary it is for you to marry
Christopher as soon as you can, Evangeline, don't you?" she said, and I
was obliged to admit there were reasons.
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