“I didn’t tell George.  Perhaps you had better telephone him.”

“Oh, well, he usually comes up to dinner because of the baby.  I’ve asked one or two people to meet Florrie, for I remember that Bessie’s one idea of enjoyment was to be in a crowd.  The Crowboroughs are coming and the Thorntons and the Blantons.”

“I’ll be dressed in time,” responded Gabriella, but she was thinking rapidly, “I can sell the diamond brooch and the bracelet and, if it is necessary, the amethyst necklace.  The brooch must have cost at least three hundred dollars.”

The meal was finished in silence, for even Mrs. Fowler’s cheerfulness would flag now and then without a spur; and Gabriella made no effort to keep up the strained conversation.  As soon as they had risen from the table, she ran upstairs to dress for the street, and then, before going out, she sat down at her desk, and wrapped up the brooch and the bracelet in tissue paper.  For a minute she gazed, undecided, at the amethyst necklace.  Mr. Fowler had given it to her, and she hated to part with it.  George’s gifts meant nothing to her now, but she felt a singular fondness for the amethyst necklace.

“I’d better take it with me,” she thought; and wrapping it with the others, she put the package into her little bag, and went out of the room.  It was her habit to stop for a last look at little Frances before she left the house, but to-day she hurried past the nursery, and ran downstairs and out of doors, where Mrs. Fowler was getting into a hansom with the assistance of Burrows, the English butler.

“May I drop you somewhere, Gabriella?” inquired Mrs. Fowler, while Burrows arranged the parcels on the seat of the hansom.  In the strong sunshine all the little lines which were imperceptible in the shadow of the house—­lines of sleeplessness, of anxiety, of prolonged aching suspense—­appeared to start out as if by magic in her face.  And over this underlying network of anxious thoughts there dropped suddenly, like a veil, that look of artificial pleasantness.  She would have died sooner than lift it before one of the servants.

“No, thank you.  I need the walk,” answered Gabriella, stopping beside the hansom.  “You will be tired if you do all those errands.  May I help you?”

“No, no, dear, take your walk.  I am so glad the storm is over.  It will be a lovely afternoon.”

Then the hansom drove off; Burrows, after a longing glance at the blue sky, slowly ascended the brownstone steps; and Gabriella, closing her furs at the throat, for the wind was high, hurried in the direction of Fifth Avenue.