C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

“ People talked about June and Lorillard, but no more Lorillard than a dozen other men. Nobody dreamed of their marrying, and none less than she herself. As for him, though he was madly in love, he must have known that as an eligible, he'd have as much chance with a royal princess as with Lady June Dana.
It was in this way that matters stood when the war broke out. And among the first volunteers of note was Robert Lorillard. ”

“ Robert himself opened the door of the flat when we rang—servants were superfluous for that interview!—and they looked at each other, those two. Lorillard didn't seem to see me. I drifted vaguely in after June, and effaced myself superficially. The most rarefied sense of honor couldn't be expected, perhaps, in a flapper whose favorite stage hero was about to play the part of his life, unrehearsed, with the flapper's most admired heroine. ”

“ Opal was most ungrateful, June said, because she, June, had sent lots of people to have their “hands read,” and get special jewels prescribed for them, like medicines. Robert had laughed to June about what Opal claimed to see for him in her crystal, but had pretended to forget most of the “silly stuff,” and be unable to repeat it. June had worried, fearing lest misfortune had appeared in the crystal, and Robert wished to hide the fact from her.
“I'll get it all out of Opal, myself!” she exclaimed to me, and took me with her to Miss Fawcett's next day. ”

“ You see, most people know who I am; that I was Elizabeth Courtenaye of Courtenaye Abbey in Devonshire; that my wonderful grandmother—a far more famous Elizabeth—married me in Rome to Prince di Miramare, who should have come into piles of money and didn't. Instead, having gone back to the front an hour after the wedding, he left me a war widow without having been a wife.
I advertised in several London dailies for my secretary, and succeeded like a July sale. I wouldn't have believed there were such crowds of pretty typists on earth! ”

“ Eyes are windows, and something must be on the other side: but alas, it seldom shines through. The windows are dim, or the blinds are down to cover emptiness. Joyce Arnold had a living spirit behind those big, bright soul windows which were her eyes! ”

“ While she hung upon my decision, and I gazed at Lorillard's signature—worth guineas as an autograph—my mind raced back along the years.
Oh, that gorgeous spring before the war! I wasn't “out,” but somehow I contrived to be “in.” That is, in all the things that I'd have died rather than miss.
We were absurdly poor, but grandmother knew every one. That April, while she was looking for a town house and arranging to present me, we stayed with the Duchess of Stane. Her daughter, Lady June, was the girl in society just then. She had been the girl for several years. ”

“ The twenty-sixth girl brought a letter of introduction from Robert Lorillard.
Robert Lorillard! Why, the very name is a thrill!
Of course, I was in love with Robert Lorillard when I was seventeen, just before the war. Everybody was in love with him that year. It was the fashionable thing. Whenever grandmother let me come up to town, I went to the theater to adore dear Robert. Women used to boast that they'd seen him fifty times in some favorite play. ”

“ CHAPTER I. THE brightener is worthy of her hire.” That was my motto in the career I chose, or rather the career chosen for me by my guardian angel, Mrs. Carstairs, at the time when my sole fortune was my face—not a mere face, mind you; but a face to find another fortune—good birth, a down-in-the-heel title, and an up-the-spout country house. ”

“ I saw your advertisement in the Times, and showed it to Miss Arnold, offering to introduce her to you. She nursed me in France, and she has been my secretary for some months. All I need say about her I can put into a few words. She is absolutely perfect. It will be a great wrench for me to lose her valuable help with the work I give my time to nowadays, but
I'd been too much excited when she said, “I have an introduction to you from Mr. Lorillard,” to do more than glance at the girl, and ask her to sit down. ”

“ Later, when the war came, she took to crystal gazing. Perhaps she had begun it before, but it was then that she suddenly “caught on.” One heard all one's friends talking about her, saying, “Have you ever been to Opal Fawcett? She's absolutely wonderful. You must go!” Accordingly we went.
When June and Lorillard were waiting in secret suspense for their special license, June implored Robert to let Opal look into the crystal for him, and read his hand. He tried to beg off, because he had met Miss Fawcett during her disastrous year on the stage. ”