Nan looked from him to her friends. What was this all about? What did it have to do with her going to London? Dr. Prescott seemed to know! She was smiling down at Nan. The other girls, did they know, too? They seemed to understand. Their faces were radiant as the old Scotsman spoke, for the truth is, they were understanding for the first time what James Blake had meant an hour before. He had said something then about the privilege of taking part in the coronation going across the water. Could he have meant——
Now they all looked up at him as he concluded. “Nancy dear,” he said, “as you know, the old Blake line has died out. Those who would have carried out the ancient privilege of assisting at the present crowning in London are dead. However, under terms of the will of the late Hugh Blake, you” he spoke low and slowly now, but very distinctly, “are chosen to act as a lady-in-waiting to the queen, God bless her soul! That is why you must be off to London now.”
CHAPTER XXIX
LONDON ON HOLIDAY
“But I don’t want to do it!” Nan was up in her room in the old castle, packing, when she made this astonishing remark.
“Why, Nancy Sherwood, how you talk!” Bess just wouldn’t believe that anyone could be so foolish as to mean what her closest friend had just said. “You don’t want to be in Westminster Cathedral with all those lords and ladies, ambassadors and ministers, kings and queens, when they crown the English king and queen? Why, Nan, you don’t mean that at all. You know you don’t.”
“I do too mean it.” Nan’s chin was firm and her voice very positive as she spoke. “I want to be with all of you, just as we had planned, when we are in London.”
“Don’t be silly!” Bess paused in her packing to look at her friend. “You’ll have a better time than any of us can ever hope to have. If I didn’t like you so much, I’d just be green with envy. Think of it! You’ll see the whole royal family and talk to them.
“You’ll have a long white court dress like those we have been seeing in the papers. You’ll be driven up to Westminster in a carriage behind the royal coach and you’ll go in there and see everything that we can only read about. And if you don’t remember every single detail of what happens, I’ll never speak to you again!