“Oh, I know that I am behaving like a silly baby; but, my dear, I have no nerve left,” said the poor lady, who was almost hysterical with agitation. “I am not very well—I ought to be in peace and quiet at Fleetwood—but I had to come on rather unpleasant business about a nephew of mine who is at the Gunnery School at Hayle. I suppose I shall have to go back to Sevenoaks with the business undone, unless I can do it from Ilkestone, for certainly I cannot make another journey along that wreckage-strewn road beyond Sowergate. Oh! it was awful.”
“It was rather grand and terrible; I have never seen anything like it before,” replied Dorothy, who had been really thrilled by the sight of the tremendous seas.
“I can do without such sights; I would rather have things on a more peaceful scale,” sighed Mrs. Wilson, whose face was mottled with little purply patches from the shock of the accident.
Dorothy helped her out of the car when they reached the Grand. She went up in the lift to the suite of rooms on the first floor which Mrs. Wilson occupied. She handed the poor fluttered lady into the care of the capable maid, and then came back to Sowergate in the car.
CHAPTER XVI
A STARTLING REVELATION
Once—that was in her first term—Dorothy had gone with Hazel and Margaret to tea with Margaret’s mother at Ilkestone; but with that exception she had had no invitations out since she had been at the Compton School, so that it was really a great pleasure to be asked to take tea with Mrs. Wilson at the Grand next day.
She reached the hotel punctually at four o’clock. She was shot up in the lift, and was met at the door of Mrs. Wilson’s suite by the same very capable maid whom she had seen the day before.
She told Dorothy that Mrs. Wilson was still very unnerved and shaken from the effects of the previous day’s happenings.
“The doctor says she must not be allowed to talk very much about it, if you please, miss; so if you could get her interested in anything else it would be a very good thing.” The maid spoke rather anxiously, and she seemed so concerned, that Dorothy cheerfully undertook to keep the lady’s mind as far away from Sowergate as possible.