Shadowed Gold by Alice Fox Parry

Valerie soon forgot her promise to Kenneth Gardiner. She had a feeling that she had been very unwise in her dealings with him, as doubts and suspicions flooded back to her mind. At any other time she might have confided in Gerald or Katherine, but Gerald was in the throes of a temporary infatuation with the vicar's youngest daughter, who played opposite him in the "Road to Romance," and Valerie felt frankly out of it, not even having the consolation of being able to start a counter-flirtation; while Katherine was too immersed in the details of the play to invite confidences.

The hills were shrouded in smoke that told of distant fires, and the evening of the play was still almost to oppressiveness. The team dined early and hurried through the meal without relish. Outside the day lingered, staining the western sky with cloudy, sullen crimson. A hot north wind played in the branches fitfully, and evening had brought no relief to the feeling of heavy inertia, from which they had suffered throughout the day. It was an unlikely night for their entertainment, and Gerald and Katherine were openly cross and disappointed.