There were great bowls of flowers, the same as Madame Pelayo surrounded herself with in her living rooms and there was an exotic fragrance of expensive perfume, which seemed to pervade everything.
Madame Pelayo was sitting up in bed, her dark hair framed with lace pillows and on the bedspread, of pink satin edged with white mink, were spread the morning’s newspapers and a great pile of invitations and letters.
As Sheena entered, Madame Pelayo put down the letter she was reading and drew from her eyes the horn-rimmed spectacles that she was forced to wear when she was reading. She was very vain about her spectacles and would never wear them in public. Without them, and with her hair loose on her shoulders, the Ambassadress looked little more than a girl.
But her voice as she spoke to She
