“Yes; I—I—have met them.”
“They are connections of ours—of yours. Everard is my heir, as perhaps you may have heard, and a fine fellow. His father is my next-of-kin, but has completely lost his memory; and Lady Hildegarde and I, though we know each other since we were in pinafores—well—we don’t stable our horses together.”
(Nor did Lady Hildegarde and I use the same stable!)
“I suppose I ought to drive out to the Abbey; but it might run me for time, and we must go by the four o’clock train. May I ring for your landlady? She can help you to put your things up. Some she can send after you; and meanwhile I’ll go to the post-office and wire the news to Dolly.”
What a fuss Mrs. Gabb made! She was far more in the way than otherwise. However, in a very short time I had closed my gaping boxes, written directions, taken a dressing-bag, put on my hat and cloak, and was ready to start.
Miss Skuce entered as I was casting my last look round the sitting-room. (She had had her usual few words with Mrs. Gabb, and was almost incoherent.)
“Well, Gwendoline!”—a long pause, employed in staring at me very hard, as if she expected me to look different in some way—“and so your uncle is ‘a lord,’ and has come to fetch you! Lord Chalgrove! Well, well, well! I congratulate you”—kissing me effusively—“I am quite broken-hearted that you are going.” She had never mentioned this before. “And you will be a great lady—indeed, I am not one bit surprised—you always had the grand air,” and she held me back at arm’s length, and surveyed me, this time with undisguised admiration. “When you are living in high places, and driving in your coroneted carriage, you won’t forget your poor friends who were intimate with you” (far too intimate) “in your days of poverty and adversity?”
“No, no, Miss Skuce,” eager to escape, “I’ll never forget you—I can promise you that most faithfully.”
“Dear! You don’t mean to say that you have been over saying good-by to those horrid, common Mounds?”
“Certainly I have; they have been most kind to me. Why should I not take leave of them?”