They slanted upwards a little at the outer corners, and this together
with the high cheek-bones, alone would have betrayed her Russian
ancestry. When Lady Arabella wanted to be particularly obnoxious
she told her that she had Mongolian eyes, and Magda would shrug her
shoulders and, thrusting out a foot which was so perfect in shape that
a painting of it by a certain famous artist had been the most talked-of
picture of the year, would reply placidly: "Well, thank heaven, _that's_
not English, anyway!"

"It certainly required some explanation when you chose to leave me
and go off and live by yourself," pursued Lady Arabella, resuming her
knitting. "A girl of twenty! Of course people have talked. Especially as
half the men in town imagine themselves in love with you."

"Well, I'm perfectly respectable now. I've engaged a nice, tame
pussy-cat person to take charge of my morals and chaperon me
generally. Not--like you, Marraine--an Early Victorian autocrat with a
twentieth-century tongue."

"If you mean Mrs. Grey, she doesn't give me the least impression of
being a 'nice, tame pussy-cat,'" retorted Lady Arabella. "You'll find
that out, my dear."

Magda regarded her thoughtfully.

"Do you think so?"

"I do."

"Oh, Gillian is all right," affirmed Magda, dismissing the matter