FOR THE SAKE OF DRAMATIC EFFECT


Somehow, Miss Dene got herself invited to spend the afternoon in seeing
with Mrs. May and Hilliard all the things which Falconer and his sister
had spent the whole morning in showing her. Exactly how she did this she
herself might have told--with her occasional startling frankness--if she
had chosen. But Mrs. May could not. Perhaps Angela had invited her, or
said something which could be snapped up as an invitation; for Nick would
hardly have suggested a second guest unless his first guest expressly
wished for one. In any case, the fact remained that Theo Dene was going in
the yellow car for a spin round Santa Barbara, to the Country Club, the
Hope Ranch, and above all, to the Mission.

She stood talking on the veranda to Falconer and Mrs. Harland, as she
waited for Angela to come down, and for Hilliard to bring round the car.
Her host and hostess were laughing at her change of plans, for she had
announced, early in the day, that she meant to "lie down all the afternoon
and rest her features."

"Who is the beautiful Mrs. May?" asked Falconer.

Theo did not like this way of putting the question, because, quite
sincerely, she herself admired no woman who was not of her own type. She
was tempted to take advantage of Angela's desire not to be known, and
say: "Oh, she's one of a thousand other pretty travelling women with
intermittent husbands." This would have been epigrammatic, and at the same
time it might have quenched dawning interest in the stranger. Neither the
brother nor sister was of the sort who favoured flitting ladies with vague
male belongings kept in the background. But suddenly a brilliant idea