By this time, however, she had made friends of her own, and if she had
cared to accept a professional status she might have raked in a small
fortune from her seances. She would not take money, however, preferring
social recognition; but gifts were pressed upon her by those who, though
grateful and admiring, did not care for the obligation to admit the
Countess into their intimacy.
She took the rings and bracelets and pendants, and flowers and fruit, and
bon-bons and books, because they were given in such a way that it would
have been ungracious to refuse. But the givers were the very women whose
bosom friend she would have liked to seem, in the sight of the world: a
duchess, a countess, or a woman distinguished above her sisters for some
reason.
She worked to gain favour, and when she had any personal triumph without
direct aid from Portman Square, she put on an air of superiority over
Annesley when they met. If she suffered a gentle snub, she hid the smart,
but secretly brooded, blaming Mrs. Nelson Smith because she was asked to
their house only for big parties, or when she was wanted to amuse their
friends.
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