Mollie took up her work again hastily. "Oh, I couldn't very well advise him about a thing like that," she said. "I don't know enough about it."
"Hasn't he asked your advice?"
"No, not exactly. He has only just mentioned it, and I said——"
"What did you say?"
"I said perhaps he would be happier living quietly in the country. I thought a quiet country life was the nicest of all."
"It wouldn't be very quiet where any of the Pembertons were, but——"
"Oh, but they only talk so loud because old Mr. Pemberton is so deaf. They are quite different when you are alone with one of them. Nora has told me a lot about herself. I like Nora very much, and I'm rather sorry for her in a way. She seems so independent and satisfied with everything, but she likes having a girl friend, all the same. Of course I don't love her as I do you, B; but I do like her, awfully. It's she who's really my friend at Grays."
"Is it?" said Beatrix, and laughed again, gently.
At that moment Mrs. Mercer was heard coming downstairs. She took her leave on the same note of hurried aloofness as that on which she had entered, and immediately afterwards Mrs. Walter knocked on the floor of her room above in summons of her daughter.
Beatrix kissed Mollie good-bye. "Don't be frightened, darling," she said. "We can easily get the better of Lord Salisbury between us. Come to tea this afternoon and tell me all about it."