Emily's Quest by L.M. Montgomery

Author:L.M. Montgomery [Montgomery, L.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-55199-294-5
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 1927-10-15T05:00:00+00:00

II

A tack on the Shrewsbury road made Emily fifteen minutes late for Mrs. Chidlaw’s dinner. She flung a hasty glance into the mirror before she went down and turned away satisfied. An arrow of rhinestones in her dark hair – she had hair that wore jewels well – lent the necessary note of brilliance to the new dress of silvery-green lace over a pale-blue slip that became her so well. Miss Royal had picked it for her in New York – and Aunts Elizabeth and Laura had looked askance at it. Green and blue was such an odd combination. And there was so little of it. But it did something to Emily when she put it on. Cousin Jimmy looked at the exquisite, shimmering young thing with stars in her eyes, in the old candlelighted kitchen and said ruefully to Aunt Laura after she had gone, “She doesn’t belong to us in that dress.”

“It made her look like an actress” said Aunt Elizabeth freezingly

Emily did not feel like an actress as she ran down Mrs. Chidlaw’s stairs and across the sun-room to the wide veranda where Mrs. Chidlaw had elected to hold her dinner party. She felt real, vital, happy, expectant. Teddy would be there – their eyes would meet significantly across the table – there would be the furtive sweetness of watching him secretly when he talked to some one else – and thought of her – they would dance together afterwards. Perhaps he would tell her – what she was longing to hear –

She paused for a second in the open doorway, her eyes soft and dreamy as a purple mist, looking out on the scene before her – one of those scenes which are always remembered from some subtle charm of their own.

The table was spread in the big rounded alcove at the corner of the vine-hung veranda. Beyond it tall, dark firs and Lombardies stood out against the after-sunset sky of dull rose and fading yellow. Through their stems she caught glimpses of the bay, dark and sapphire. Great masses of shadow beyond the little island of light – the gleam of pearls on Ilse’s white neck. There were other guests – Professor Robins of McGill with his long, melancholy face made still longer by his odd spade-shaped beard; Lisette Chidlaw’s round, cream-coloured, kissable face with its dark hair heaped high over it and her round, dark eyes; Jack Glenlake, dreamy and handsome; Annette Shaw, a sleepy, gold-and-white thing, always affecting a Mona Lisa smile; stocky little Tom Hallam with his humorous Irish face; Aylmer Vincent. Quite fat. Beginning to be bald. Still making pretty speeches to the ladies. How absurd to recall that she had once thought him Prince Charming! Solemn-looking Gus Rankin, with a vacant chair beside him, evidently for her. Elise Borland, young and chubby, showing off her lovely hands a little in the candlelight. But of all the party Emily only saw Teddy and Ilse. The rest were puppets.

They were sitting together just opposite her.

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