PART III

CHAPTER I

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

The annual flower-show at Fairharbour was one of the chief events of the district, and entailed such a gathering of the County as Vera Fielding would not for worlds have missed.  It also entailed the donning of beautiful garments which was an even greater attraction than the first.

She had not been well during the sultry weather that had prevailed throughout the early part of June, and Fielding had been considering the advisability of taking her away for a change.  But though her energy for many of the amusements which she usually followed with zest had waned with the lassitude that hot weather had brought upon her, she had set her heart upon attending the flower-show, and, in obedience to the new policy which Juliet by every means in her power persuaded him to pursue, the squire had somewhat impatiently yielded the point.  The show was to take place in the grounds of Burchester Park.  It was an immense affair, and everyone of any importance was sure to attend.

Juliet herself would gladly have stayed away, but Mrs. Fielding, partly as a natural consequence of her poor health and chiefly from a selfish desire to feel herself an object of solicitude, would not hear of leaving her behind.  As Dick had predicted, she had come to lean upon Juliet, and her dependence became every day more pronounced.  At times she was even childishly exacting, and though Juliet still maintained her right to direct her own movements, she found her liberty considerably curtailed.

If she went down to the shore with Robin she usually met with a querulous, and sometimes tearful, reception on her return, and though she steadily refused to admit that there was any reason on Vera’s part for assuming this attitude, it influenced her none the less.  Moreover, Vera could be genuinely pathetic upon occasion, and there was no disputing the fact that she stood in need of care—­such care as only a woman could give.

“I don’t want a nurse,” she would say plaintively.  “I only want companionship and sympathy.  Motoring is my only consolation, and I can’t go motoring alone.”

And then the squire would draw her aside and beg her to bear with Vera’s whims as far as possible since loneliness depressed her and she was the only person he knew whose company did not either tire her out or irritate her beyond endurance.  It was not an easy position, but Juliet filled it to the best of her ability and with no small self-sacrifice.