"Her name is Grubb, she is sister to Mrs. Creery, the—" (how could she give any approximate idea of that lady's pomp?) "the principal lady at the Andamans!" she added rather faintly.
"Principal lady! What rubbish!" cried Clara. "If she resembles her distinguished sister, I make you my compliments, as the French say, on the class of society you enjoyed out there."
"Let us see where she lives. Where's her card? What is her name?—Tubb—Grubb?" said Carrie. "Here it is," taking it up between two supercilious fingers, and reading,—
Lady Grubb,
Smithson Villas, Pimlico.
"Pimlico! So i should have imagined," for, of course, any one who lived in that region was in the Miss Platts' opinion socially extinct.
"You certainly cannot do yourself the pleasure of spending a long and happy day at Smithson Villas," said Carrie with decision. "Goodness knows whom you might meet; and she would be bragging to her cronies that you were our cousin."
"I shall go if she asks me," replied Helen quietly. "It is no matter who I meet, and I will guarantee that your name does not transpire."
Was the girl trying to be sarcastic? Carrie looked at her sharply, but Helen's face was immovable.
"Well, I do most devoutly trust that she will not see fit to wait upon you again, or that if she does she will come in the laundry-cart!"
"I wonder what the Courtney-Howards thought of her. I'm sure I saw Evelyn at the window," remarked Clara. "Oh!" she added with great animation, "here is the Jenkins' carriage—Flo and her mother. What a mercy that they did not come five minutes ago!"