CHAPTER FOURDown Payment
Mrs. Paul Bradlock was a small, very blonde woman; small boned, small featured, with a small, clear voice. She was one of those pale blondes whose colouring seems to acquire a kind of dinginess after early youth. If anything can be done to combat this effect, Mrs. Paul Bradlock had not done it—her hair, smooth and loosely knotted, was faded; her light eyes were without sparkle; her skin was without life.
She was almost shabby. Her mauve dress looked as though it might have been made in one piece and belted in—it too had a faded look. But compared with her sister-in-law she was animated. She smiled at Gamadge with lips that were unacquainted with lipstick, and talked steadily and quite gaily.
“They were so afraid you wouldn’t come, they refused to let you know!”
