"May a body be told how she has done that?" Violet asked.
"Well, no; I'm afraid not, even though the body be Miss Effingham. It was a profound secret;—really a secret concerning a third person, and she began about it just as though she were speaking about the weather!"
"How charming! I do so like her. You haven't heard, have you, that Mr. Ratler proposed to her the other day?"
"No!"
"But he did;—at least, so she tells everybody. She said she'd take him if he would promise to get her brother's salary doubled."
"Did she tell you?"
"No; not me. And of course I don't believe a word of it. I suppose Barrington Erle made up the story. Are you going out of town next week, Mr. Finn?" The week next to this was Easter-week. "I heard you were going into Northamptonshire."
"From Lady Laura?"
"Yes;—from Lady Laura."
"I intend to spend three days with Lord Chiltern at Willingford. It is an old promise. I am going to ride his horses,—that is, if I am able to ride them."