‘Yes,’ said the elder sister, ‘I don’t wonder! A most atrocious attempt! I declare I could hardly make up my mind to sleep in the house! Mind you swear to them all, my dear.’
‘I only saw Smithson clearly.’
‘Oh, never mind; if they have not done that, they have done something quite as bad; and I should never sleep a night again in peace if they got off. Was it true that they had packed up all the liqueurs?’
Phœbe exonerated them from this aggravated guilt.
‘I say, my dear, would you tell the butler to bring up some of the claret that was bought at Mr. Rollestone’s auction. I told Sir Nicholas that he should taste it, and I don’t like to mention it to poor Mervyn, as he must not drink wine.’
‘There is some up,’ said Phœbe; ‘Mervyn fancies that Bertha liked it.’
‘My dear, you don’t give Bertha that claret! you don’t know what poor papa gave for it.’
‘If Bertha would only enjoy anything, Mervyn would be overjoyed.’
‘Yes, it is as Juliana says; it is nothing but spoiling that ails her,’ said Augusta. ‘Did you say she was in the garden? I may as well go and see her.’
This Phœbe withstood with entreating looks, and representations that Bertha had as yet seen no fresh face, and was easily startled; but her sister insisted that she was no stranger, and could do no harm, till Phœbe had no choice but to run on and announce her, in the hope that surprise might lessen the period of agitation.