She paused a minute and then went on:
“You’ve only just arrived, haven’t you?”
“Yes. Last night. We came on the Vapo d’Italia boat.”
“Have you ever been to Rhodes before?”
“No. It is lovely, isn’t it?”
Her husband said:
“Pity it’s such a long way to come.”
“Yes, if it were only nearer England—”
In a muffled voice Sarah said:
“Yes, but then it would be awful. Rows and rows of people laid out like fish on a slab. Bodies everywhere!”
“That’s true, of course,” said Douglas Gold. “It’s a nuisance the Italian exchange is so absolutely ruinous at present.”
“It does make a difference, doesn’t it?”
The conversation was running on strictly stereotyped lines. It could hardly have been called brilliant.
A little way along the beach, Valentine Chantry stirred and sat up. With one hand she held her bathing dress in position across her breast.
She yawned, a wide yet delicate cat-like yawn. She glanced casually down the beach. Her eyes slanted past Marjorie Gold—and stayed thoughtfully on the crisp, golden head of Douglas Gold.
She moved her shoulders sinuously.She spoke and her voice was raised a little higher than it need have been.
“Tony darling—isn’t it divine—this sun? I simply must have been a sun worshipper once—don’t you think so?”
Her husband grunted something in reply that failed to reach the others. Valentine Chantry went on in that high, drawling voice.
“Just pull that towel a little flatter, will you, darling?”
She took infinite pains in the resettling of her beautiful body. Douglas Gold was looking now. His eyes were frankly interested.
Mrs. Gold chirped happily in a subdued key to Miss Lyall.
“What a beautiful woman!”
Pamela, as delighted to give as to receive information, replied in a lower voice:
“That’s Valentine Chantry—you know, who used to be Valentine Dacres—she is rather marvellous, isn’t she? He’s simply crazy about her—won’t let her out of his sight!”
Mrs. Gold looked once more along the beach. Then she said:
“The sea really is lovely—so blue. I think we ought to go in now, don’t you, Douglas?”
He was still watching Valentine Chantry and took a minute or two to answer. Then he said, rather absently:
“Go in? Oh, yes, rather, in a minute.”
Marjorie Gold got up and strolled down to the water’s edge.
Valentine Chantry rolled over a little on one side. Her eyes looked along at Douglas Gold. Her scarlet mouth curved faintly into a smile.