Lady Cecilia was embarrassed.
"Oh, nothing! She's just so very odd."
But I insisted:
"She must have meant something. Had it anything to do with Hugh?"
Reluctantly Lady Cissie let it out. Mrs. Billing had got the idea that I was marrying Hugh for his money; and, though in the past she had not disapproved of this line of action, she had come to think it no road to happiness. Having taken the trouble to give me more than one hint that I should many the man I was in love with she was now disappointed in my character.
"You know how much truth there is in all that, don't you?" I said, evasively.
Lady Cissie did her best to support me, though between her words and her inflection there was a curious lack of correspondence.
"Oh yes—certainly!"
I got the reaction of her thought, however, some minutes later, when she said, apropos of nothing in our conversation:
"Since Janet can't be married this month, I needn't go home for a long time."