The Glittering Lights (Bantam Series No. 12) by Barbara Cartland Page A

roof.
    The bath and bathroom fittings were in solid silver.
    Lily had returned to England three years earlier in 1883 to try to persuade Mr. Langtry into giving her a divorce but her husband had categorically refused.
    She had re-crossed the Atlantic to discover Freddy Gebhard still adored her. He installed her in a luxurious house in West 23rd Street, where they threw riotous parties which were headlined in all the newspapers.
    Cassandra thought Freddy Gebhard had a rather weak face. At the same time he was undoubtedly good looking.
    He shook her hand politely when they were introduced, but it was obvious that he had eyes only for Mrs. Langtry and was in fact wildly and overwhelmingly in love.
    “Lily, my darling, you look more wonderful than I can tell you,” he said softly and bent his head to kiss her hand.
    ‘How sad they cannot be married,’ was Cassandra’s first thought.
    Then she thought it strange that a married woman, even if she was an actress, could be on such intimate terms with another man.
    Mrs. Langtry appeared, however, to be concerned only with her own appearance and her audience which awaited her in the theatre.
    “Every seat is sold out!” Freddy announced.
    “But of course!” Lily replied. “They told me when I arrived that people have been queueing since twelve o’clock this morning.”
    She was already wearing the dress in which she was to appear in the first act.
    Cassandra noticed how tightly it was moulded over her bosom and how the bustle at the back accentuated her tiny waist.
    “You are so lovely,” she said impulsively. “It is not surprising everyone wants to see you.”
    Mrs. Langtry smiled.
    “Thank you,” she said with the ease of a woman who takes her compliments for granted.
    Then turning to Freddy she said:
    “Take Miss Standish to the Box, Freddy. She will sit with you during the performance, and then I have promised her we will take her with us to Lord Carwen’s party.”
    “Yes, of course—delighted!” Freddy agreed.
    Cassandra felt that he was disappointed that he would not be alone with his adored Lily, and resented the fact that she would accompany them even the short distance from the theatre to where the party was to take place.
    “I hope I am not being a nuisance,” she said humbly. She knew even as she spoke that she did not care if she was, for she had every intention of going to the party where there was a chance she would be introduced to the Duke.
    “No, of course not,” Freddy said politely but with an obvious insincerity.
    He kissed both Lily’s hands and whispered something in her ear, before he escorted Cassandra down the long draughty passages and through the pass-door, which lay behind the stage, at the side of the auditorium.
    An attendant ushered them into the stage-box.
    For the first time Cassandra wondered apprehensively if there was anyone in the audience who might recognise her.
    It was unlikely. Nevertheless, if any of her friends had come to London from Yorkshire, they would undoubtedly wish to see Mrs. Langtry’s play.
    Cassandra was well aware of the scandal it would arouse if she were seen alone with a man in the stage-box of a theatre—most of all if she was accompanied by someone as notorious as Freddy Gebhard.
    She solved the problem by moving to a seat against the partition so that, while she had the best view of the stage she was almost invisible to the audience.
    If Freddy Gebhard thought it strange that she did not wish to make herself conspicuous, he did not say so.
    He was only too pleased to take the centre of the Box.
    He stood in the front of it looking at the audience, waving to a friend or two in the Stalls, looking up at the Gallery, until finally the people in the cheap seats realised who he was and started to clap.
    This was obviously what he was waiting for; for he bowed, waved his hand and was almost childishly elated with his reception.
    He sat down and said to Cassandra:
    “They are beginning to know me as