FORGET-ME-NOTS.
Lady Caroline, always mindful of her daughter's moods, could not quite understand Margaret's demeanor when she returned home that afternoon. She fancied that some news about Sir Philip might have reached the girl's ear and distressed her mind. But when she skilfully led the conversation in that direction, Margaret said at once, with a complete absence of finesse that rather disconcerted her mother—
"No, mamma, I heard nothing about the Ashleys—mother or son."
"Dear Margaret," thought Lady Caroline, "is surely not learning brusquerie and bad manners from that tiresome Miss Colwyn. What a very unlucky friendship that has been!"
She did not seize the clue which Margaret unconsciously held out to her in the course of the same evening. The girl was sitting in a shady corner of the drawing-room holding a feather fan before her face, when she introduced what had hitherto been, at Helmsley Court, a forbidden topic—the history of the Brands.
"Papa," she said, quietly, "did you never know anything of the Red House people?"
Lady Caroline glanced at her husband. Mr. Adair seemed to find it difficult to reply.
"Yes, of course, I did—in the old days," he answered, less suavely than usual. "When the father was alive, I used to go to the house, but, of course, I was a mere lad then."
"You do not know the sons, then?" said Margaret.
"My dear child, I do not hunt. Mr. Brand's only appearance in society is on the hunting field."