She then started to change her clothes.
Her stepmother told her that she was to be downstairs in plenty of time before dinner to greet the new arrivals.
“As most of them are coming a long distance,” she said, “they had better go up to their rooms as soon as they arrive and then there will be champagne in the drawing room before dinner.”
Imilda made no reply and the Countess went on,
“Tonight there will just be the guests who are staying in the house but tomorrow, when our neighbours come to dinner after the Steeplechase, your father will arrange for there to be gambling and bridge afterwards.”
Imilda had heard all this before, so she did not really listen.
She was wearing one of the pretty gowns that had been bought for her as a debutante.
It was, of course, white but trimmed, as wa
