“To be sure,—Mrs. Creevy. And her friend, who always came with her?”
“Miss Busk—”
“Yes, of course; Miss Busk, of the Emporium. If I don't mistake, I 've given her an order for something,—bonnets, or caps; what is it?”
“A head-dress. Your Ladyship told her—”
“You 'll make me ill, child—positively ill—if you remind me of such horrors. I told you to come and read for me, and you begin to inflict me with what—I declare solemnly—is the most humiliating incident of my life.”
Kate resumed her book, and read on. Lady Dorothea was now, however, unmistakably inattentive, and the changing color of her cheek betrayed the various emotions which moved her.
“I really fancy that Miss Martin liked the atrocious creatures we have received here the past week; she certainly showed them a species of attention quite distinct from mere acceptance; and then they all addressed her like old acquaintance. Did you observe that?”
“I thought that they assumed a degree of familiarity with Miss Martin which was scarcely consistent with their station.”
“Say highly ridiculous, child,—perfectly preposterous; for although she will persist in a style of living very opposite to the requirements of her position, she is Miss Martin, and my niece!”
There was now a dead pause of some seconds. At length her Ladyship spoke:—