Read Online The Glittering Lights (Bantam Series No. 12) by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online

admit that Mrs. Langtry acted quite well. Of course she was extremely refined and lady-like—that goes without saying— but everyone says it is the best part she has played.”
    “I would like to see it,” Cassandra said.
    “Of course the Prince of Wales was at the opening night,” Lady Fladbury continued, hardly pausing for breath.
    “I expect Mrs. Langtry’s clothes are very beautiful,” Cassandra hazarded.
    “Of course!” Lady Fladbury answered. “Since she does not pay for them, she can naturally afford the best.”
    “I suppose the theatre management thinks the expense a good advertisement,” Cassandra remarked. “But where does she buy them?”
    “Most of her clothes come from Worth or Doucet in Paris, but Redfern of Conduit Street, where the Princess of Wales shops, makes some of them.”
    “I have often been to Redfern,” Cassandra murmured, but her Aunt was not listening.
    “Have you heard the story that Alfred de Rothschild said he would give her a dress from Doucet, and Mrs. Langtry ordered an extra petticoat with it? When the bill came he sent it on to her, saying he had offered her one dress but no more.”
    Cassandra laughed. She did not like to show her ignorance by revealing that she thought it very strange that Mrs. Langtry should allow a man to give her a gown.
    “She must be the envy of every other leading lady,” she remarked. “Where do they purchase their gowns?”
    “In ordinary and much cheaper shops,” Lady Fladbury replied, “and you may be quite sure they resent it. At the same time, I am told that Chasemore has done a wonderful job for George Edwards at the Gaiety. I have not seen the new show, but it caused a lot of comment that he gave them the chance to dress his new production.”
    Cassandra had found out what she wished to know.
    “I must go, Aunt Eleanor,” she said. “I am keeping the horses waiting, and you know how much Papa dislikes my doing that!”
    It was an excuse to which there was no reply, and Cassandra got away while she could to find Hannah waiting for her in the hall.
    Cassandra gave the footman an address and they set off down Piccadilly.
    It was a cold, blustery day, and she was glad of the warmth from her fur-trimmed jacket.
    “Where are we going, Miss Cassandra?” Hannah enquired.
    “Shopping,” Cassandra answered, “and do not be surprised, Hannah, at anything I buy. This is the beginning of the adventure about which I warned you.”
    In spite of the warning, however, Hannah was extremely surprised and said so in no uncertain terms when during the morning Cassandra purchased clothes of which the maid told her a dozen times her mother would not approve.
    “You must have gone out of your mind, Miss Cassandra!” she said in horrified tones when the vendeuse had left the Dressing-Room to fetch a seamstress to alter one of the gowns.
    There was no doubt the dress Cassandra was trying on was very different from the beautiful gowns she had previously worn.
    They had been elaborate and many of them had had a decided Parisian chic about them. But what she was wearing now was glitteringly spectacular and accentuated her flamboyant red hair and dark-fringed eyes. It was also very theatrical.
    “For goodness’ sake, Miss Cassandra, why are you wasting your money on this trash?” Hannah asked.
    “I have my reasons,” Cassandra answered enigmatically. “What do I look like, Hannah? Tell me the truth!”
    “You look like something off the Music Hall, and what your father would say about you dolled up like some fast hussy from behind the footlights, I don’t know.”
    “Thank you, Hannah, that is exactly what I wanted to hear,” Cassandra answered.
    She paid no attention to Hannah’s protests and went on ordering, to the delight of the saleswoman.
    “We made some really attractive gowns for Miss Sylvia Grey,” the woman volunteered.
    “She is in ‘Little Jack Shepherd’ at the Gaiety,” Cassandra remarked.
    “Yes, and one of her gowns,