are any new flowers out in the garden.”
She was anxious that Pepe should be well-dressed and looking pretty when her father returned and so it would be a mistake to be too active after luncheon.
They went for a ride taking the horses rather slower than usual because it was so hot.
When they returned to the house, they then hurried down to the lake.
They quickly took off their clothes in the hut and put on their bathing dresses which were dry and clean.
Pepe wore a cap over her hair, while Eleta pinned her fair curly hair on top of her head – it was so long that it hung when it was loose over her breasts, but she managed to keep it out of the water.
Pepe plunged into the lake. She had been able to swim only a little when Eleta arrived, but now it came to her naturally and she swam about as if she was a little fish.
Eleta was glad that she had been sensible enough to pack a very attractive bathing dress. She had bought it in France for when she stayed with one of her friends.
It was the pale blue of her eyes and had, which the French had introduced, a short skirt from the waist nearly to her knees. It made her look very young and was also extremely becoming.
She had a perfect figure and had caused a sensation when she appeared in it in France. The men present had complimented her on being a Goddess of the Sea.
But there was no one to see her now except Pepe and it was glorious swimming in the cool water with the sun reflected on it.
Eleta was just thinking that it was time for them to go back to the house for luncheon when a man appeared, walking over the lawn.
For a moment she wondered who he was.
Then Pepe, who had gone into the hut to take off her bathing dress, came out of the door in her petticoat.
She was just about to say something to Eleta when she saw the man coming down to the water’s edge.
For a moment she stared at him and then she gave a cry and ran towards him calling out,
“Daddy, Daddy, you are back! It’s so lovely to see you!”
As she reached the Marquis, he put out his hands and picked her up.
To his surprise she put her arms around his neck, hugging him and kissing his cheek.
*
The Marquis had quite suddenly, as he often did, decided that London was boring and he wanted to be in the country.
It was not only the heat but the fact that he had attended a large number of parties in the last few weeks.
He had also decided that his affaire-de-coeur with the beautiful Countess of Westbridge was at an end as far as he was concerned.
It was not that she was not as beautiful as she had been when he had first seen her or that she was in any way difficult or over-demanding.
It was just because he found, as he inevitably did in all his affairs, that she had nothing new to offer him and he anticipated what she was about to say before she said it.
‘It is very extraordinary,’ he had often thought to himself, ‘that beautiful women have very little brain.’
When they first attracted him, it was most usually because of something witty they had said or more often they had made it very clear that they desired him.
If there was one thing he really disliked, it was the endless repetition of what had happened yesterday and the day before that.
He was always seeking something different and so far with women he found that there was nothing new or different in any of them.
They attracted him, he admitted, physically, but he found them, after a relatively short time, extremely dull in every other way.
What was more, most of them had some irritating habits, like twisting their rings or repeating what he had just said and it was as if they changed the whole sense by their own interpretation of it.
In the last few years he had found, when he was bored, it was easy to make an excuse to visit Paris, better still to travel to Scotland where he would be offered sport like fishing or shooting.
This invariably would take his mind off what he found monotonous and dreary.
Now it was summer and there
She was anxious that Pepe should be well-dressed and looking pretty when her father returned and so it would be a mistake to be too active after luncheon.
They went for a ride taking the horses rather slower than usual because it was so hot.
When they returned to the house, they then hurried down to the lake.
They quickly took off their clothes in the hut and put on their bathing dresses which were dry and clean.
Pepe wore a cap over her hair, while Eleta pinned her fair curly hair on top of her head – it was so long that it hung when it was loose over her breasts, but she managed to keep it out of the water.
Pepe plunged into the lake. She had been able to swim only a little when Eleta arrived, but now it came to her naturally and she swam about as if she was a little fish.
Eleta was glad that she had been sensible enough to pack a very attractive bathing dress. She had bought it in France for when she stayed with one of her friends.
It was the pale blue of her eyes and had, which the French had introduced, a short skirt from the waist nearly to her knees. It made her look very young and was also extremely becoming.
She had a perfect figure and had caused a sensation when she appeared in it in France. The men present had complimented her on being a Goddess of the Sea.
But there was no one to see her now except Pepe and it was glorious swimming in the cool water with the sun reflected on it.
Eleta was just thinking that it was time for them to go back to the house for luncheon when a man appeared, walking over the lawn.
For a moment she wondered who he was.
Then Pepe, who had gone into the hut to take off her bathing dress, came out of the door in her petticoat.
She was just about to say something to Eleta when she saw the man coming down to the water’s edge.
For a moment she stared at him and then she gave a cry and ran towards him calling out,
“Daddy, Daddy, you are back! It’s so lovely to see you!”
As she reached the Marquis, he put out his hands and picked her up.
To his surprise she put her arms around his neck, hugging him and kissing his cheek.
*
The Marquis had quite suddenly, as he often did, decided that London was boring and he wanted to be in the country.
It was not only the heat but the fact that he had attended a large number of parties in the last few weeks.
He had also decided that his affaire-de-coeur with the beautiful Countess of Westbridge was at an end as far as he was concerned.
It was not that she was not as beautiful as she had been when he had first seen her or that she was in any way difficult or over-demanding.
It was just because he found, as he inevitably did in all his affairs, that she had nothing new to offer him and he anticipated what she was about to say before she said it.
‘It is very extraordinary,’ he had often thought to himself, ‘that beautiful women have very little brain.’
When they first attracted him, it was most usually because of something witty they had said or more often they had made it very clear that they desired him.
If there was one thing he really disliked, it was the endless repetition of what had happened yesterday and the day before that.
He was always seeking something different and so far with women he found that there was nothing new or different in any of them.
They attracted him, he admitted, physically, but he found them, after a relatively short time, extremely dull in every other way.
What was more, most of them had some irritating habits, like twisting their rings or repeating what he had just said and it was as if they changed the whole sense by their own interpretation of it.
In the last few years he had found, when he was bored, it was easy to make an excuse to visit Paris, better still to travel to Scotland where he would be offered sport like fishing or shooting.
This invariably would take his mind off what he found monotonous and dreary.
Now it was summer and there
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