"You extravagant thing," Lady West scolded, "to spoil a lovely boudoir gown like that!"
"Simone gets it to-morrow as a perquisite, with all my old things," Juliet dismissed the subject. "She said you'd been here an age, so I thought I'd better come in. I'll dry my hair before the fire, presently we'll have tea."
So saying, she sat down tailor-fashion on a long, fat velvet cushion which lay in front of the low fender.
"Evidently you're not expecting the Duke," laughed Lady West.
"No-o," said the girl. "But I'm expecting a letter from him--or something."
"You haven't got the pearls on show with your other presents, I see," remarked her friend. "I don't blame you! Of course, Parker is doing the watch-dog act outside; and only your _bestest_ pals come up. Still, the pearls are frightfully valuable. And you can never tell! But do, _do_ let me see them. I'm dying to!"
"I haven't got them yet," Juliet confessed.
"Not got them?" gasped the elder woman. "You're joking. Why"--and she laughed with great gaiety--"one _marries_ Claremanagh for his pearls!"
"Does one?" Juliet took her up. "I know whole populations of females who'd give _their_ pearls to marry him, for--himself!"
This told Emmy West that the bride-to-be knew she had been scratched, and was ready to scratch back. For an instant Emmy hesitated whether to be sweet or sharp, and decided to compromise. "By Jove, you _are_ in love, aren't you?" she said.
"I am," Juliet admitted. "I don't care a rap about being a duchess. That sort of thing seems--somehow old-fashioned since the war. And I don't think I ever was a snob, thank goodness."
Emmy wondered if this were another "dig." She had been a Chicago girl, and only a "tuppenny half-penny" heiress, compared to Juliet Phayre; but she had wanted a title, and had paid all she could afford for a mere baronet, such as her few hundred thousand dollars would buy. On the sofa once more facing her low-seated hostess, she looked Juliet full in the eyes; but Juliet's were innocent, even dreamy. "I'd have snapped at my Boy if he'd been just a Tommy when I met him Over There, instead of a perfectly gorgeous Guardsman," the girl went on. "But, of course, I _do_ want the pearls! I wouldn't be human if I didn't; everyone talks about them so much, even my Cousin Jack Manners, and says they're so marvellous. I expect they are what Pat is sending around this evening."