So poor Letty’s attempts to satisfy the girl had been a failure; the influence of devotion, self-sacrifice, and example, was powerless against the giant Heredity.
In mid-July there was a grand fête in Lucerne, and Mrs. Hesketh invited Letty and her encumbrance to a concert at the Casino, dinner at the National, and subsequently to see the illuminations, and return home by motor-boat.
This programme was faithfully accomplished; at dinner in the restaurant of the hotel, Letty and her girl, were distinguished among a vast cosmopolitan crowd. When their coffee-cups had been emptied, Cara, in her most persuasive manner, asked leave to run away.
“I want,” she said, “to go up to the Drei Linden and sit with Berthe, who is ill in bed with an abscess in her face. I’ll be back before you know I’m gone; I’ve seen the fireworks, and the lighting up of the old bridge, a thousand times, so if I’m late, please don’t worry. I shall probably stay and try to cheer up poor old Berthe.”
“But, my dear Cara, should you be going about alone at this hour?” asked Mrs. Hesketh in a tone of alarm.
“What—in Lucerne! I should hope so. I know it from end to end, and I shall be perfectly safe, if that is why you are anxious.”
When Cara had resumed her hat and scarf, the two ladies walked with her to the entrance of the hotel, and watched her trip across the tram-line, and vanish by the corner of the English church.
“You see, the child has a kind heart,” said Letty, “and is ready to give up a gay evening, to go and sit with her sick friend.”
“Yes,” agreed Mrs. Hesketh; “I own I am——” she was about to say ‘surprised,’ but hastily substituted the word ‘impressed.’ “Now, we may as well go on the Quai, and see what is to be seen.”
As it happened there was a good deal to be seen, not merely the fiery outline of the bridge and towers, the lights on Pilatus and Stanserhorn, but numbers of lively little boats carrying Chinese lanterns; they looked like swarms of fire-flies. The Quai was almost impassable, so thronged was it with a gay, gaily dressed, chattering crowd; sightseers, townsfolk, and the contents of various hotels, were all enjoying the brilliant scene, and the delicious evening.