“I cannot stay very long. I have a dinner tonight, and my servants need overlooking.”
“I hope that cynical De Burg is not going to eat with you. He’ll niver break bread at my table.”
“Why, aunt, he is a man of the highest culture and one of the best speakers in The House!”
“Let him talk as much as he likes in t’ House; there’s a few men to match him there.”
“How has he offended you, aunt? He is quite a favorite with Leyland and myself.”
“Whatever does tha see in his favor?”
“He has such a fine bearing and such graceful manners. Leyland says that in the most excited hubbubs of The House, he carries himself with all the serenity and aristocratic poise of an English gentleman—I should say, nobleman.”
“There’s no wonder tha forgets his nobility. It only counts to his grandfather. I’ll tell thee something, Jane—a gentleman is allays a nobleman, a nobleman may be a gentleman, and he may be varry far from it; but there, now! I’ll say no more, or I’ll mebbe say too much! How many dresses does our beauty want?”
This question opened a discussion of such interest that a servant entered with the tea service and hot crumpets before they were thinking of the time; and half an hour afterwards Katherine was ready to accompany her sister to the Leyland home.
During the first two weeks, the early part of Katherine’s days were spent either in shopping, or in “trying on,” and such events rarely need more than an allusion. Every woman has some, or all of the experiences incident to this trial; but though they may be of personal importance, they have no general interest. We may pass Katherine’s dressmaking trials, by knowing that they were in the hands of four or five women capable of arranging them in the most satisfactory manner. Katherine herself left them as early as possible, and spent the most of her time in her father’s company, and Lady Jane approved transiently of this arrangement. She did not wish Katherine to be seen and talked about until she was formally introduced and could make a proper grand entry into the society she wished her to enter. Of course there were suppositions floating about concerning the young lady seen so much with Lady Leyland; but as long as the talk remained indefinite, it was stimulating and working for a successful début.