Cole-Mortimer, and she was glad of the excuse to leave her tragic home.

Mrs. Cole-Mortimer, who was not lavish in the matter of entertainments
that cost money, had a box, and although Lydia had seen the piece before
(it was in fact the very play she had attended to sketch dresses on the
night of her adventure) it was a relief to sit in silence, which her
hostess, with singular discretion, did not attempt to disturb.

It was during the last act that Mrs. Cole-Mortimer gave her an
invitation which she accepted joyfully.

"I've got a house at Cap Martin," said Mrs. Cole-Mortimer. "It is only a
tiny place, but I think you would rather like it. I hate going to the
Riviera alone, so if you care to come as my guest, I shall be most happy
to chaperon you. They are bringing my yacht down to Monaco, so we ought
to have a really good time."

Lydia accepted the yacht and the house as she had accepted the
invitation--without question. That the yacht had been chartered that
morning and the house hired by telegram on the previous day, she could
not be expected to guess. For all she knew, Mrs. Cole-Mortimer might be
a very wealthy woman, and in her wildest dreams she did not imagine that
Jean Briggerland had provided the money for both.

It had not been a delicate negotiation, because Mrs. Cole-Mortimer had
the skin of a pachyderm.

Years later Lydia discovered that the woman lived on borrowed money,
money which never could and never would be repaid, and which the
borrower had no intention of refunding.

A hint dropped by Jean that there was somebody on the Riviera whom she
desired to meet, without her father's knowledge, accompanied by the
plain statement that she would pay all expenses, was quite sufficient
for Mrs. Cole-Mortimer, and she had fallen in with her patron's views as
readily as she had agreed to pose as a friend of Meredith's. To do her
justice, she had the faculty of believing in her own invention, and she
was quite satisfied that James Meredith had been a great personal friend
of hers, just as she would believe that the house on the Riviera and the
little steam-yacht had been procured out of her own purse.

It was harder for her, however, to explain the great system which she
was going to work in Monte Carlo and which was to make everybody's
fortune.

Lydia, who was no gambler and only mildly interested in games of chance,
displayed so little evidence of interest in the scheme that Mrs.
Cole-Mortimer groaned