They had paused before the table on which the bride’s jewels were displayed, and Lily’s heart gave an envious throb as she caught the refraction of light from their surfaces–the milky gleam of perfectly matched pearls, the flash of rubies relieved against contrasting velvet, the intense blue rays of sapphires kindled into light by surrounding diamonds: all these precious tints enhanced and deepened by the varied art of their setting. The glow of the stones warmed Lily’s veins like wine. More completely than any other expression of wealth they symbolized the life she longed to lead, the life of fastidious aloofness and refinement in which every detail should have the finish of a jewel, and the whole form a harmonious setting to her own jewel-like rareness.
“Oh, Lily, do look at this diamond pendant–it’s as big as a dinner-plate! Who can have given it?” Miss Farish bent short-sightedly over the accompanying card. “Mr. Simon Rosedale. What, that horrid man? Oh, yes–I remember he’s a friend of Jack’s, and I suppose cousin Grace had to ask him here today; but she must rather hate having to let Gwen accept such a present from him.”
Lily smiled. She doubted Mrs. Van Osburgh’s reluctance, but was aware of Miss Farish’s habit of ascribing her own delicacies of feeling to the persons least likely to be encumbered by them.
“Well, if Gwen doesn’t care to be seen wearing it she can always exchange it for something else,” she remarked.
“Ah, here is something so much prettier,” Miss Farish continued. “Do look at this exquisite white sapphire. I’m sure the person who chose it must have taken particular pains. What is the name? Percy Gryce? Ah, then I’m not surprised!” She smiled significantly as she replaced the card. “Of course you’ve heard that he’s perfectly devoted to Evie Van Osburgh? Cousin Grace is so pleased about it–it’s quite a romance! He met her first at the George Dorsets’, only about six weeks ago, and it’s just the nicest possible marriage for dear Evie. Oh, I don’t mean the money–of course she has plenty of her own–but she’s such a quiet stay-at-home kind of girl, and it seems he has just the same tastes; so they are exactly suited to each other.”
Lily stood staring vacantly at the white sapphire on its velvet bed. Evie Van Osburgh and Percy Gryce? The names rang derisively through her brain. Evie Van Osburgh? The youngest, dumpiest, dullest of the four dull and dumpy daughters whom Mrs. Van Osburgh, with unsurpassed astuteness, had “placed” one by one in enviable niches of existence! Ah, lucky girls who grow up in the shelter of a mother’s love–a mother who knows how to contrive opportunities without conceding favours, how to take advantage of propinquity without allowing appetite to be dulled by habit! The cleverest girl may miscalculate where her own interests are concerned, may yield too much at one moment and withdraw too far at the next: it takes a mother’s unerring vigilance and foresight to land her daughters safely in the arms of wealth and suitability.
Lily’s passing light-heartedness sank beneath a renewed sense of failure. Life was too stupid, too blundering! Why should Percy Gryce’s millions be joined to another great fortune, why should this clumsy girl be put in possession of powers she would never know how to use?
She was roused from these speculations by a familiar touch on her arm, and turning saw Gus Trenor beside her. She felt a thrill of vexation: what right had he to touch her? Luckily Gerty Farish had wandered off to the next table, and they were alone.
Trenor, looking stouter than ever in his tight frock-coat, and unbecomingly flushed by the bridal libations, gazed at her with undisguised approval.
“By Jove, Lily, you do look a stunner!” He had slipped insensibly into the use of her Christian name, and she had never found the right moment to correct him. Besides, in her set all the men and women called each other by their Christian names; it was only on Trenor’s lips that the familiar address had an unpleasant significance.
“Well,” he continued, still jovially impervious to her annoyance, “have you made up your mind which of these little trinkets you mean to duplicate at Tiffany’s tomorrow? I’ve got a cheque for you in my pocket that will go a long way in that line!”