She opened the second envelope, her jeweller's account. At the very
first item she gave another scream, fainter than the first, for her mind
was getting hardened against such shocks.
'To re-setting a suite of amethysts, with forty-four finest Brazilian
brilliants, three hundred and fifteen pounds.'
Then followed the trifles she had bought at different visits to the
shop--casual purchases, bought on the impulse of the moment. These
swelled the account to a little over eight hundred pounds. Lesbia sat
like a statue, numbed by despair, appalled at the idea of owing over two
thousand pounds.
CHAPTER XXX.
'ROSES CHOKED AMONG THORNS AND THISTLES.'
Lady Lesbia ate no luncheon that day. She went to her own room and had a
cup of tea to steady her nerves, and sent to ask Lady Kirkbank to go to
her as soon as she had finished luncheon. Lady Kirkbank's luncheon was a
serious business, a substantial leisurely meal with which she fortified
herself for the day's work. It enabled her to endure all the fatigues of
visits and park, and to be airily indifferent to the charms of dinner;
for Lady Kirkbank was not one of those matrons who with advanced years
take to _gourmandise_ as a kind of fine art.
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