"Oh, Toni, will you never learn sense?" In spite of himself Owen spoke sharply. "Of all the foolish things to do! Well, what happened when you got there?" "People weren't very nice." Toni flushed again at the memory of the whispers and averted faces which had greeted her entrance with Mrs. Herrick. "But we just sat down and watched, and everything would have been all right if Lady Martin hadn't interfered." "What did she do?" "She had a woman with her--Lady Saxonby, someone called her--and she heard me addressed as Mrs. Rose, and turned to me at once and asked me if I were your wife." "She did? By Jove!" Owen guessed that Vivian's curiosity had nerved her to the step. "Yes. So I said I was, and she was beginning to talk to me--quite politely--but somehow as if she were taking me in all the time----" Owen could well imagine how Lady Saxonby's eyes would scrutinize the face of the girl with whom he had consoled himself after her defection; and he felt both anger and surprise at the thought of the scrutiny. "Well, go on." Insensibly his tone had hardened, and Toni hurried on. "Well, as she was talking to me, Lady Martin came up and tried to draw her away, but she wouldn't go. So Lady Martin got vexed, I suppose, and she bent down and whispered something to her--something about Eva, because I heard the words 'necklace' and 'prison' quite plainly, and Eva heard it too and turned crimson." "And then?" "Then Lady Saxonby looked straight at me and asked me to give you a message." "Did she?" Owen was astonished. "What was it?" "She asked me to say that she hoped you had forgiven her and were as happy as she is." "Gad, what impertinence!" He flushed darkly. "She had no right to send me such a message; it was nothing but a piece of unwarranted presumption on her part." "Was it?" Toni spoke rather wistfully. "You see, I didn't know at first who she was, and I thought she meant to be quite decent. But then Eva jumped up and said very quickly that the woman who had jilted an honourable man ought to be ashamed of sending such a message through that man's wife--and when I said something she told me that Lady Saxonby was the woman who threw you over when you came home, for all the world to see." Owen, vexed to the soul by the thought of this miserable publicity, set his teeth hard and said nothing; and Toni hurried on.