...
Good-bye, dear.'
* * * * *
As soon as Bruce had gone out Edith rang up the elder Mrs Ottley on the
telephone, and relieved her anxiety in advance. They were great
friends; the sense of humour possessed by her mother-in-law took the
sting out of the relationship.
* * * * *
The dinner at Aylmer's house was a great success. Bruce enjoyed himself
enormously, for he liked nothing better in the world than to give his
opinion. And Aylmer was specially anxious for his view as to the
authenticity of a little Old Master he had acquired, and took notes,
also, of a word of advice with regard to electric lighting, admitting
he was not a very practical man, and Bruce evidently was.
Edith was interested and pleased to go to the house of her new friend
and to reconstruct the scene as it must have been when Mrs Aylmer Ross
had been there.
Freddy, the boy, was at school, but there was a portrait of him.
Evidently he resembled his father. The sketch represented him with the
same broad forehead, smooth, dense light hair, pale blue eyes under
eyebrows with a slight frown in them, and the charming mouth rather
fully curved, expressing an amiable and pleasure-loving nature. The boy
was good-looking, but not, Edith thought, as handsome as Aylmer.
The only other woman present was Lady Everard, a plump, talkative,
middle-aged woman in black; the smiling widow of Lord Everard, and well
known for her lavish musical hospitality and her vague and
indiscriminate good nature.
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