The Worldly Widow Read Free Page A

Channel would have given her eyeteeth to have enter her portals.
    Annabelle ' s dismay lasted only a moment. For one thing, she had no intention of encountering any gentlemen in that establishment. She was sure she would put a bag over her head before she would let her face be seen. For another, Miss Dupres ' s list of gentlemen included only military sorts, and Annabelle avoided them like the plague. She had once been married to one. The experience had left her with a thorough distaste for anything remotely connected with Wellington and his armies. Her opinion of men in general was not very high. Of soldiers, it was positively unprintable.
    She listened politely as Miss Dupres began on a flood of anecdotes that would, thought Annabelle, provide enough material for a second volume of her memoirs. She stored the information away for future reference. By degrees, she politely and unobtrusively steered the conversation to Vienna and Brussels in the year during which Miss Dupres had been the mistress of one of Wellington ' s high-ranking officers before he met his untimely end at Waterloo. Within minutes, Annabelle came to the conclusion that Miss Dupres ' s memoirs, in diary form, were no fabrication. She considered herself a shrewd judge of character and had decided that there was the ring of truth in Miss Dupres ' s words. Having achieved her sole object in coming to Paris, Annabelle asked if she might see the rest of the manuscript. It was duly brought to her. She dipped into it at random.
    From time to time, Annabelle ' s eyes lifted to gaze thoughtfully at the other girl. There was nothing spiteful or malicious in the racy and often witty stories in her diaries. On the contrary, there was a certain charm and vivaciousness in the girl ' s personality which was evident in her writing. Still, Miss Dupres ' s intimate knowledge of the bedroom antics of Wellington and many of his staff, not to mention diplomats and visiting dignitaries, was enough to rock both houses of Parliament.
    Such sordid goings-on held no interest for Annabelle. But she was sensible of the fact that what she held in her hands, when published, would sell like hotcakes. Such a book would consolidate Bailey ' s Press as one of the leading publishing houses in London. It also represented future security for the employees who relied on Annabelle ' s business acumen as well as the means to provide for her dependents. That it would be an embarrassment to those who found themselves portrayed in its pages did not weigh with Annabelle. The gentlemen had sown their wild oats. Let them weather the scandal as best they might.
    She made an offer, a very handsome one, but then, Annabelle told herself, this particular volume was like to sell as many as twenty thousand copies, and at a selling price of a guinea a volume, Bailey ' s P ress stood to make a very handsome profit. The offer was accepted with alacrity. A bank draft exchanged hands. Thereupon, a hatbox was produced to store the four hundred pages or so of Annabelle ' s latest acquisition. She was feeling very proud of herself as she rose to take her leave of the other girl.
    "You ' re a very talented writer, you know, " she said sincerely. "You could quite easily make a living in that field if you had a mind to. "
    "Oh no, there ' s not nearly enough money in it, " was the candid rejoinder. "I ' m at the top of my profession now. In a year or less, I shall have the capital to open my own establishment if I continue as I am now. "
    Annabelle, who had only moments before handed the girl a draft for the sum of two thousand pounds, was thunderstruck. It had been on the tip of her tongue to offer the poor thing temporary sanctuary in her own home in London until such time as she found a respectable position and might pursue a more settled way of life. She ' d thought the girl an unhappy victim of circumstance. Evidently, the life of a demi-rep was more lucrative than she had credited and held an allure which