For some time after rejoining the company, Florence was so busy with her thoughts that she paid little attention to what was going on about her. She was aroused from her abstraction by a sharp voice:
“Don't you think Captain Hornaby is a very handsome young man?” Florence looked and found that her questioner was Lady Elfrida Hastings, the only sister of the Earl. When that lady had visited them at Nahant, she had considered her the embodiment of all the female virtues. She recalled her statuesque repose, and her aristocratic manner which had so pleased her father. She also remembered the morning when she was discovered by Maude practising the Lady Elfrida's poses, and her sister's inquiry as to whether she had a chill and wanted the quinine pills.
Feeling the necessity of saying something, she replied: “I haven't noticed him particularly.”
The Lady Elfrida, perfect gentlewoman that she was, said severely, for her, “Your failure to do so, certainly was not due to lack of opportunity.”
So, her long absence in his company had been noticed. She was at a loss for a reply, when to her great relief the Earl approached and asked if she would play a certain piece which he had admired very much when in America.
“What was its name?”
“I can't remember,” said the Earl. “It ran something like this,” and he hummed a few measures.
“Oh,” cried Florence, “Old Folks at Home.” The scene through which she had gone with the Captain had awakened deep emotions, and her voice was in the temperamental condition to give a sadly-weird effect to the lines of the chorus. When she sang
“Oh, my heart is sad and weary”
the Lady Elfrida turned to Mrs. Ellice, the Rector's wife, and remarked, “There was a rumour that Captain Hornaby was greatly interested in Miss Sawyer, but from something she told me to-night I do not think it will be a match.”