Gertrude felt all the old opposition rising within her, in the jarring presence; an opposition which she assured herself was unreasonable. What did it matter what Aunt Caroline said, at this time of day? It had been different when they had been little girls; different, too, in that first moment of sorrow and anxiety, when she had laid her coarse touch on their quivering sensibilities.
Yet, when all was said, Mrs. Pratt's was not a presence to be in any way passed over.
"It is half-past one," said Aunt Caroline, consulting her watch; "are you not going to have your luncheon?"
"It is laid in the kitchen," explained Lucy; "but if you will stay we can have it in here."
"In the kitchen! Is it necessary to give up the habits of ladies because you are poor?"
"A kitchen without a cook," put in Phyllis, "is the most ladylike place in the world."
Mrs. Pratt vouchsafed no answer to this exclamation, but turned to Lucy.
"No luncheon, thank you. I may as well say at once that I have come here with a purpose; solely, in fact, from motives of duty. Gertrude, perhaps your conscience can tell you what brings me."
"Indeed, Aunt Caroline, I am at a loss——"
"I have come," continued Mrs. Pratt, "prepared to put up with anything you may say. Gertrude, it is to you I address myself, although, from Fanny's age, she is the one to have prevented this scandal."