The Duke, however, decided that he would show Mr. Vanderfeld and his daughter some of his pictures and he suggested to Helga that she might like come with them.
It was what she was longing to do, but she knew as they left the drawing room that the Countess looked up from the gambling table with an angry expression in her slanting eyes.
The pictures were even more entrancing than Helga had imagined they would be, but after a short while Mr. Vanderfeld obviously grew bored. When they reached the library, with its thousands of books reaching towards the ceiling, at the Duke’s suggestion they stopped for a drink.
They sat down in the red leather chairs and sofas that were grouped around the fireplace.
Helga had already found that Virginia Vanderfeld was rather difficult to talk to and now
