XVIII


Madeleine went to Mrs. Abbott's reception, but there was nothing
conciliatory nor apologetic in her mien. She had intended to be
merely natural, but when she met that battery of eyes, amused,
mocking, sympathetic, encouraging, and realized that Mrs. Abbott's
tongue had been wagging, she was filled with an anger and resentment
that expressed itself in a cold pride of bearing and a militant
sparkle of the eye. She was gracious and aloof and Mrs. McLane
approved her audibly.

"Exactly as I should feel and look myself," she said to Mrs.
Ballinger and Guadalupe Hathaway. "She's a royal creature and she has
moved in the great world. No wonder she resents the petty gossip of
this village."

"Well, I'll acquit her," said Mrs. Ballinger tartly. "A more cold-blooded
and unattractive man I've never met."

"Langdon Masters is by no means unattractive," announced Miss
Hathaway out of her ten years' experience as a belle and an
unconscionable flirt. "I have sat in the conservatory with him
several times. It may be that Mrs. Abbott stepped in before it was
too late. And it may be that she did not."

"Oh, call no woman virtuous until she is dead," said Mrs. McLane
lightly. "But I won't hear another insinuation against Madeleine
Talbot."