[Illustration: "No, don't, Viviette; forgive me"]
Viviette
By
William J. Locke
Copyright, 1916
By AINSLER MAGAZINE COMPANY
Copyright, 1916
By JOHN LANE COMPANY
Contents
  1. The Brothers
  2. The Conspirators
  3. Katherine
  4. The Famous Duelling Pistols
  5. A Crisis
  6. Viviette Takes The Risk
Illustrations
  1. "No, don't, Viviette; forgive me"
  2. "Dick glared at him"
  3. "He held out imploring hands"
  4. "I want you to love me forever and ever"
Viviette
Chapter I
The Brothers
"Dick," said Viviette, "ought to go about in skins like a primitiveman."
Katherine Holroyd looked up from her needlework. She was a gentle,fair-haired woman of thirty, with demure blue eyes, which regarded thegirl with a mingling of pity, protection, and amusement.
"My dear," she said, "whenever I see a pretty girl fooling about with aprimitive man I always think of a sweet little monkey I once knew, whoused to have great sport with a lyddite shell. Her master kept it on histable as a paper-weight, and no one knew it was loaded. One day she hitthe shell in the wrong place--and they're still looking for the monkey.Don't think Dick is the empty shell."
Whereupon she resumed her work, and for a few moments the click ofthimble and needle alone broke the summer stillness. Viviette lay idlyon a long garden chair admiring the fit of a pair of dainty tan shoes,which she twiddled with graceful twists of the ankles some five feetfrom her nose. At Mrs. Holroyd's remark she laughed after the manner ofone quite contented with herself--a low, musical laugh, in harmony withthe blue June sky and the flowering chestnuts and the song ofthe thrushes.
"My intentions with regard to Dick are strictly honourable," sheremarked. "We've been engaged for the last eleven years, and I stillhave his engagement ring. It cost three-and-sixpence."
"I only want to warn you, dear," said Mrs. Holroyd. "Anyone can see thatDick is in love with you, and if you don't take care you'll have Austinfalling in love with you too."
Viviette laughed again. "But he has already fallen! I don't think heknows it yet; but he has. It's great fun being a woman, isn't it, dear?"
"I don't know that I've ever found it so," Katherine replied with asigh. She was a widow, and had loved her husband, and her sky was stilltinged with grey.
Viviette, quick to catch the sadness in the voice, made no reply, butrenewed the contemplation of her shoe-tips.
"I'm afraid you're an arrant little coquette," said Katherineindulgently.
"Lord Banstead says I'm a little devil," she laughed.
If she was in some                         
...
                        
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