‘I almost hope to find you at cross purposes, after all,’ said Honora.
‘No such good luck,’ laughed Lucilla. ‘Cinderella’s seniors never could go off two at a time. Ah! there’s the name. I beg your pardon, Phœbe.’
‘But, Lucy, what can you mean? Who can have telegraphed about Augusta?’
‘Ah! you knew not the important interests involved, nor Augusta how much depended on her keeping the worthy admiral in play. It was the nearest thing—had she only consented at the end of the evening instead of the beginning, poor Lord William would have had the five guineas that he wants so much more than Mr. Calthorp!’
‘Lucy!’
‘It was a bet that Sir Nicholas would take six calendar months to supply the place of Lady Bannerman. It was the very last day. If Augusta had only waited till twelve!’
‘You don’t mean that he has been married before. I thought he was such an excellent man!’ said Phœbe, in a voice that set others besides Lucilla off into irresistible mirth.
‘Once, twice, thrice!’ cried Lucilla. ‘Catch her, Honor, before she sinks into the river in disgust with this treacherous world.’
‘Do you know him, Lucy?’ earnestly said Phœbe.
‘Yes, and two of the wives; we used to visit them because he was an old captain of Uncle Kit’s.’