In Berlin, at what was falsely called a
Charity Ball, she had met a young Russian Count who was understood to be
rich and related to one of the Grand Ducal families. Against the
protests of her father (a shrewd American banker), she had married the
Count, and they had returned to New York, where her mother had social
ambitions.
There they had suffered a serious shock. It turned out that her husband
had deceived them, and that he was really a poor and quite nameless
person, only remotely related to the family he claimed to belong to.
Nevertheless Alma had "won out" at last. By digging deep into her
father's treasury she got rid of her treacherous husband, and going "way
out west," she had been able, in due time, to divorce him.
Since then she had resumed her family name, being known as Madame Lier,
and now she was on her way to Egypt to spend the season at Cairo.
"And you?" she said. "You stayed long at the convent--yes?"
I answered that I had, and then in my fluttering voice (for some of the
old spell of her presence had come sweeping back upon me) I replied one
by one to the questions she asked about the Reverend Mother, the
"Reverend Mother Mildred," Sister Angela and Father Giovanni, not to
speak of myself, whom she had always thought of as "Margaret Mary"
because I had looked so innocent and nun-like.
Pages:
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374