The Runaway Visitors by Eleanor Farnes Page B

without knowing its cause: a sunshine girl, with that burnished hair and an aura about her. The Contessa called her ‘dear child’ and a young man immediately attached himself to her and was not to be shaken off. It was the younger women who appraised her with criticism, Margarita who felt not only coldness towards her, but an implacable determination to keep between this unwelcome newcomer and Charles.
    The young man was Giuseppe Orselli and he refused to leave Victoria’s side. His English was eccentric, to say the least, and half the time Victoria could not understand him. As time ticked away, she began to be bored by him. He had inveigled her into an alcove by one of the windows, to keep her to himself and to avoid the crowd which was now becoming quite thick. It was from this vantage point, half hidden by a brocade curtain, giving up the struggle to cope with Giuseppe’s English, that Victoria’s boredom was suddenly penetrated by Margarita’s voice from somewhere quite close by.
    ‘No really, Charles, you are catching them young nowadays. One might even say cradle-snatching. Can you really find such ingenuousness interesting?’
    ‘Whether or not I find it interesting, whether beauty is enough by itself . . .’
    ‘Beauty?’ sharply.
    ‘You don’t find her beautiful, Margarita?’
    Margarita was not to be so easily caught.
    ‘I hadn’t thought of her that way, I suppose. Yes, of course, she has a kind of beauty . . .’
    ‘Not your kind, admittedly. Not that southern kind of night-black richness, that mystery . . . but as I was about to say: Whether or not I find such ingenuousness interesting is quite beside the point. I am simply furthering Victoria’s education ...’ ‘Charles, Charles! ’
    ‘By showing her what Firenze has to offer; by looking at Michelangelo for the thousandth time, by trailing round the Uffizi. The others would have been with her, and were invited to be with her, but the boy’s passion is for cars, and the younger girl didn’t want to be educated. ’
    ‘I’d like to know whose idea this was—this course of further education. Was it yours, Charles, or could it possibly have been Victoria’s?’
    Giuseppe spoke to Victoria at that moment, and she was guilty of snubbing him completely by turning her back on him, for she simply had to hear what Charles and Margarita had to say. Giuseppe stood somewhat crestfallen by her side, wondering what he had done.
    ‘You may be surprised to know,’ Charles was saying,
    ‘that it was neither. The idea came from Jeanie Jameson. ’
    If Margarita was surprised, she could not have been more surprised than Victoria.
    ‘Apparently,’ Charles’s voice went on, ‘I’ve been guilty of neglect and inconsideration. When I agreed to the family coming here I took on the responsibility for their welfare, but must admit I didn’t realise that included their social life. But on the night of the party, Jeanie discovered our fair Victoria in floods of tears because she hadn’t been invited, and came along the next morning and read me a lecture on my shortcomings. So I realised that I had to make a gesture, and this is it.’
    ‘But how ridiculous, Charles! You can’t allow what Miss Jameson thinks to order your life. You know you regard your working hours as sacred. Why, your friends—I myself—would never dream of intruding. We never come without ringing up, and nearly always arrange to see you in the evening. I simply don’t like to think your work is being interrupted. ’
    ‘I know, Margarita, you are always the soul of consideration; but what am I to do? I can’t have my guests in floods of tears.’ Giuseppe touched Victoria’s arm and offered her a dish of canapes of caviare and smoked salmon. She took one and smiled at him automatically, but her ears were alert for Margarita’s reply.
    ‘Oh, if all she needs is a social life, we can supply that. If she feels excluded, that’s soon remedied. The Contessa lives by parties, as