"Oh, I think the invitation should go from the lady of the house."
"Very well, my dear, I will ask her to come a couple of days before the crowd, and I'll send off a note by this very post."
A letter from Mrs. Hicks, Newenham Court, Moonshire, to B. Hicks, Esq., M.D., Panora, near Khotagheri, Nilgiris, India:
My dear Hubby,
Won't you open your eyes to see where I am? I arrived a week ago, to stay with Nancy's friend, Mrs. De Wolfe, and am now living among the very highest company, and on the fat of the land! This is a lovely old place, something like what you read of in novels—with a great park, and lots of stiff-looking servants, and palms in the sitting rooms, and wonderful table silver. Here up in my room, every time I come into it, I find a fresh can of hot water standing in the basin—but I believe there are six housemaids—and such scented soap, and bath salts, and a big four-post bed, as soft as whipped cream. A great tennis tournament is being held all this week; so far I have done pretty well, in the 'ladies' doubles,' and this house is as full as if it were a fashionable hotel. Most of the people are strangers to me, except as tennis and Bridge partners, Finchie's niece and nephew are here, the Hon. Mrs. Speyde,—a black-eyed, flighty-looking widow,—and the Honourable Tony Lamerton, her brother: not a bad sort, and a good tennis player, but with a laugh to split your head! There is Major Horne, I came home with him on board ship last time but one,—terribly sea-sick he was too! and of all people in the world, who do you think, but Captain Mayne! His uncle lives in these parts.
Isn't it strange that he and Nancy should be staying in the same house, and talking politely to one another, as if they were bare acquaintances that had only lately met, for the first time? I suppose they have to pretend, as they are keeping their past very dark; and I believe they are both as obstinate as a pair of commissariat mules. I noticed that he sat next her at dinner last night, and they scarcely spoke, and they have played in the same sets at tennis. I also notice that he plays as a 'bachelor' against the married men. All the time, I'm the only one here, or in England, who happens to know, that he and Nancy are married; and when he addresses her as 'Miss Travers,' it's all I can do to hold my tongue. At tennis, I think they sometimes forget their feud, for I have heard him shout, 'Yours, Nancy,' and I have seen the two of them laughing together,—but elsewhere, as far as their manners to one another are concerned, they might have come out of a refrigerator!
I must say, it's an awful pity that such a handsome young couple cannot make it up. I think Nancy should come forward,—being the one in the wrong. She is a real darling, and such a beauty that you'd never know her, and so nice and affectionate to a dowdy old girl like me. I wish she and Mayne would make it up. I'd try my hand, only you say I always make a botch of such affairs, blurt out secrets, and give the show away. Well, well! perhaps something may happen to put things right.
Old Mrs. De Wolfe is wrapped up in Nancy, she might be her own granddaughter; the girl goes about the place, as if she had lived here for years; she is well liked too,—indeed too much liked by some! There's a dark foreign fellow, who is always trying to be her shadow, and who dances with her of an evening, but as far as I can see, I don't think Mayne minds—he has his own fish to fry!
By the time this is in your hands, Jess and Teddy will have arrived, and given you my news, and your new socks, and jerseys. I'm sending you some postcards of this place; but they give a very poor idea of its style. Many a time, I shall dream of it, I know, when I am back with you in old Panora. You and I fancy our roses; well, you should see those here; the Pergolas just smothered in them, and the rosery a sight for angels; as for the apricots on the south wall, my mouth waters, when I think of them!