Chapter 28 - Page 2

their "double" coffee and liqueurs, and Undine was wondering what her
companion would devise for the afternoon, the Princess clapped her hands
together and cried out: "Dearest, I'd forgotten! I must desert you."

She explained that she'd promised the Duchess to look up a friend who
was ill--a poor wretch who'd been sent to Cimiez for her lungs--and that
she must rush off at once, and would be back as soon as possible--well,
if not in an hour, then in two at latest. She was full of compunction,
but she knew Undine would forgive her, and find something amusing to
fill up the time: she advised her to go back and buy the black hat with
the osprey, and try on the crepe de Chine they'd thought so smart: for
any one as good-looking as herself the woman would probably alter it for
nothing; and they could meet again at the Palace Tea-Rooms at four. She
whirled away in a cloud of explanations, and Undine, left alone, sat
down on the Promenade des Anglais. She did not believe a word the
Princess had said. She had seen in a flash why she was being left, and
why the plan had not been divulged to her before-hand; and she
quivered with resentment and humiliation. "That's what she's wanted me
for...that's why she made up to me. She's trying it to-day, and after
this it'll happen regularly...she'll drag me over here every day or
two...at least she thinks she will!"

A sincere disgust was Undine's uppermost sensation. She was as much
ashamed as Mrs. Spragg might have been at finding herself used to screen
a clandestine adventure.

"I'll let her see... I'll make her understand," she repeated angrily;
and for a moment she was half-disposed to drive to the station and take
the first train back. But the sense of her precarious situation withheld
her; and presently, with bitterness in her heart, she got up and began
to stroll toward the shops.

To show that she was not a dupe, she arrived at the designated
meeting-place nearly an hour later than the time appointed; but when she
entered the Tea-Rooms the Princess was nowhere to be seen. The rooms
were crowded, and Undine was guided toward a small inner apartment
where isolated couples were absorbing refreshments in an atmosphere of
intimacy that made it seem incongruous to be alone. She glanced about
for a face she knew, but none was visible, and she was just giving up
the search when she beheld Elmer Moffatt shouldering his way through the
crowd.

The sight was so surprising that she sat gazing with unconscious fixity
at the round black head and glossy reddish face which kept appearing and
disappearing through the intervening jungle of aigrettes. It was long
since she had either heard of Moffatt or thought about him, and