Val Gwepton, who was not blessed with the most
reposeful of temperaments, fairly let herself go, and gave Mrs. Pentherby
a vivid and truthful _resume_ of her opinion of her. The object of this
unpent storm of accumulated animosity waited patiently for a lull, and
then remarked quietly to the angry little woman--
"And now, my dear Mrs. Gwepton, let me tell you something that I've been
wanting to say for the last two or three minutes, only you wouldn't given
me a chance; you've got a hairpin dropping out on the left side. You
thin-haired women always find it difficult to keep your hairpins in."
"What can one do with a woman like that?" Mrs. Val demanded afterwards of
a sympathising audience.
Of course, Reggie received numerous hints as to the unpopularity of this
jarring personality. His sister-in-law openly tackled him on the subject
of her many enormities. Reggie listened with the attenuated regret that
one bestows on an earthquake disaster in Bolivia or a crop failure in
Eastern Turkestan, events which seem so distant that one can almost
persuade oneself they haven't happened.
"That woman has got some hold over him," opined his sister-in-law,
darkly; "either she is helping him to finance the show, and presumes on
the fact, or else, which Heaven forbid, he's got some queer infatuation
for her.
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