108. An Archangel Called Ivan Read Online Free PDF Page B

the Square.
    Her carriage was waiting outside the shop where she had left it and she told the coachman to take her home.
    She felt that both the coachman and the footman were surprised that she carried no parcels with her.
    But they immediately drove her back to Park Lane, where she found her aunt coming down the staircase very smartly dressed.
    “Oh, there you are, Arliva!” she exclaimed. “I was wondering what had happened to you when they told me that you had gone out shopping.”
    “I went to buy a present for one of the girls whose birthday it is tomorrow,” Arliva replied. “But I could not find anything I liked, so I will have to look after luncheon.”
    “Now, my dear, you must go and change,” her aunt suggested. “Surely you must have remembered that we are lunching with Lady Fotheringay today and you look very drab and dowdy in that get-up.”
    “I dressed in a hurry as I wanted to go shopping,” Arliva told her. “I will not keep you long while I change.”
    “There is no great hurry, dearest, but I want you to look your very best, so do wear that pretty blue dress you wore yesterday. I thought the hat exceedingly becoming.”
    Arliva smiled at her.
    “I promise I will do you credit, Aunt Molly, but I can hardly do more,” she replied.
    “Of course not,” her aunt agreed. “Did you enjoy your party last night?”
    “I thought it was one of the best we have given so far – ”
    They had moved into one of the sitting rooms while they were talking.
    Now her aunt glanced at the door before she said,
    “The Countess of Sturton talked to me last night. She is very anxious that you should marry her son.”
    “But I am not at all anxious to marry him,” Arliva answered. “He is very dull and whenever I have talked to him I find his conversation, to say the least, is limited.”
    Her aunt sighed.
    “Of course, dearest, he is an Earl and I believe that their castle is very impressive.”
    ”Which is much more than can be said for Simon Sturton,” Arliva retorted.
    “Well, do be nice to him if he is at the luncheon today,” her aunt said. “I can assure you that his mother thinks the world of him.”
    It was with difficulty that Arliva did not reply that the Countess of Sturton thought the world of money and not particularly of anything else.
    “I will go to change,” she said. “I am sure you don’t want to be late for Lady Fotheringay.”
    “No, of course not, and do make yourself look very attractive. I cannot think why you ever bought that suit you are wearing, it really has nothing to recommend it and the hat is even duller.”
    Arliva then remembered that she had not put the little feathers back into the hat, which would make all the difference to it.
    But she replaced them when she had taken off the hat and was walking up the stairs, so that the housemaid should not think it strange.
    Then she changed into one of her prettiest dresses.
    She chose a hat trimmed with pink roses that was as pretty as the sunshine outside in Hyde Park.
    When they drove off to the luncheon party, Arliva said,
    “It’s getting so hot in London, I would really love to be in the country.”
    “In the middle of the Season!” her aunt exclaimed her voice rising in surprise. “Think how dull it will be. Here you have a party every night and soon it will be time for Ascot. There, I know, you will be the smartest girl of the year.”
    Arliva wanted to add, ‘and the richest’, but she bit back the words.
    She was not surprised that Lady Fotheringay made a great fuss of her at the luncheon.
    A large number of the men paid her compliments and the girls were obviously jealous at the attention she was receiving.
    *
    ‘I want to be myself. I want people to like me because I am me,’ Arliva mused as they drove back.
    Her aunt was babbling on about the party they were going tonight.
    Without her saying so, she knew that the Countess of Sturton would be there telling her son once again that he must be charming