Lady Cannon rose indignantly, leaving her coffee untouched.
'Very well, Hyacinth; if this is the way you take my kind advice and well-meant interest, there's nothing more to be said. Of course, I shall tell Sir Charles what I've heard. From what I can gather from that excellent young man Mr Ottley, Mr Reeve is by no means a person that Sir Charles and I would be glad to welcome with open arms, as one of the family.'
'Cecil Reeve is a friend of mine. There's nothing in the world to be said against him, and you must really allow me the privilege of choosing my own friends.'
'Good-bye then,' said Lady Cannon, going to the door. 'I'm pained, grieved, and shocked at your attitude. I can only presume, however, that you are not engaged to be married, for surely your first thought would have been to ask your guardian's consent; and once more let me tell you, in being reckless as you have, you're simply ruining your future.'
With this Lady Cannon swept from the room.
She returned, however, and said, 'I regard all this as not your own fault, Hyacinth, but the fault of that Miss Yeo. From the first I saw she had an evil influence, and I've been proved, as, perhaps unfortunately, I always am, to be perfectly right.'
'The worst of it was,' Hyacinth said, when relating the conversation to Anne a little later,' that I can't tell Auntie that I'm engaged. Isn't it awful?'
'You soon will be,' said Anne consolingly.
'Do you really think so?'
'Yes, and I'm glad Lady Cannon was scored off, anyhow.'