Free Kissing Kin by Elswyth Thane

him uncertainly. “You need it after the journey.”
    She took the glass and settled back on her heels, half against Cousin Sally’s knees and half against the sofa, and began to sip.
    “Is someone else coming to dinner?” she asked, feeling a little more hopeful.
    “My dear, the most tremendous surprise!” said Sally. “Archie is on his way to Gloucester from Oxford, and has got the night here! He rang up from the Hall half an hour ago and said not to say a word to Virginia, he would just arrive! He’s travelling by motor on some mysterious errand, and is going to bring Jenny Keane with him from the Hall. It will be more cheerful for you to have her to get acquainted with to-night, and nice for her to come away for a bit, she works much too hard.”
    “Perhaps she’d let me see over the hospital,” said Camilla. “Some time when it’s convenient, I mean.”
    “She would be glad to, I know. She thinks of nothing else nowadays, poor lamb.”
    “I’m longing to see Archie, and I’d have put on my prettiest frock for him if I’d known!” Camilla remarked, just as Elvire came in—a gaunt, middle-aged Frenchwoman who had been Sally’s maid since the beginning of time.
    Sally gave some quick, explicit orders in French, which Camilla only half caught, and Elvire, having said Oui madame, three times without enthusiasm, went away again. They drank their wine and speculated about what was delaying Archie until she returned with a handful of jewels which she laid in Sally’s lap and retired.
    “Ah,” said Sally with satisfaction, handing Sosthène her empty glass, and picked up a pair of tortoise-shell hair ornaments set with pearls, and a three-strand pearl bracelet with a diamond clasp. “Now we shall see. Hold up, child—the left side, I think—” With a light, expert touch she set the hair ornament at the edge of the smooth band which went round Camilla’s head, and glanced at Sosthène, who nodded, looking on from behind the sofa with his glass in his hand. “Just one,” said Sally, and put the other in Camilla’s paralysed hand, “You may have them both, in case you lose one, but you are to wear only one at a time, do you hear? Now this.” She slipped the bracelet on Camilla’s slim wrist and snapped its clasp. “These are for you to keep. They suit you.”
    “To keep!” cried Camilla incredulously. “Oh, no, just to wear!—just for to-night because—because of Archie—I couldn’t possibly—”
    “To keep,” said Sally firmly, closing Camilla’s fingers on the the second hair ornament which she had thrust back impulsively at its owner. “Tomorrow we will go through my jewel-case and you shall choose whatever you like.”
    “But I c-can’t own things like this, I can’t have real pearls, they must be worth a fortune and I’m only—I’m just a poor relation from Richmond!” she finished hastily, trying to make Cousin Sally laugh with her, trying to make her see that such gifts were not for graceless young heathens from the hinterlands like herself. “We never see such things in Richmond, letlet alone wear them!” she hurried on. “Mother wouldn’t allow me, she’d have them locked up—”
    “Your mother is not here,” said Sally. “Fortunately, it seems. I have many good jewels, my dear, they have always been a weakness of mine. Those which are suitable to your age and style you shall have now, while you are young enough to enjoy them, instead of—later. We shall have to do something about a dress, too. Not that what you are wearing is not very good. But something perhaps a little more—festive.”
    “But I have a better one, a blue one,” Camilla assured her eagerly. “I was afraid it was too gay for to-night, I—should I fly up now and change before they come?”
    “By no means,” said Sally kindly. “You are right for tonight just as you are. Sosthène, I want for her an ivory brocade —”
    There were voices in the hall. Archie and Jenny had