"Poor old Edna," he said. "I don't feel exactly in a position to criticize. This woman must be clever."
"Clever!" exclaimed Miss Wellington. "It's uncanny! Instantly she obtained an almost hypnotic influence over Durland and Antonia. Even Dolly was on the point of succumbing--if it had not been that the woman overreached herself in her affair with young Williams. Between ourselves, Anthony, though I haven't said this to Edna, I don't feel at all sure that that affair did not go a great deal further than the kiss."
Anthony frowned in silence. This was almost more than he could bear.
He said to himself that it was the idea of Antonia being brought into contact with such a situation that disgusted him.
Cora was kind enough to sit in his drawing-room and wait while he had a bath and dressed. It was a nice room and she thought as she waited how she would rearrange the furniture if ever she should come to live there. There were photographs of the children about--Antonia as a baby, Durland in his first sailor suit, a picture of Edna with the three children grouped about her like English royalties.
She was wearing the pearls.
To be continued...
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