'It is hard that one's sisters should be sacrificed.'
'My dear, everybody is not as much au grand sérieux at that age as we used to be. The Skipper, as Charlie respectfully calls him, may be right, and there may be nothing in it; or if there should be, that Angel of ours has quite strength and spirit enough for a struggle, and maybe a disappointment. The truth is,' coming nearer, and looking mysterious, 'we know nothing at all about it, and had best let it alone.'
Wilmet's face of expectation melted into pardon for being teased; but Kester, shouting, 'Uncle Felix, come!' put an end to the conference, rather an odd one to be taking place at the moment when the Countess was beguiling the constraint of sitting, by dreaming over Isabel Bruce, and the magnanimity of rescuing the intended recluse by—Alas! she had never had a ring to throw at her feet—only that whisper which Robina seemed unwilling to convey.
[CHAPTER XL.]
A K T STROPHE.
'When shall we three meet again,
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?'
Shakespeare.
Lance did not appear on the evening before the picnic, and announced by letter, the next morning, that he could not get away. Felix regretted not having as usual changed places with him, but could hardly have absented himself from such a guest as the present without discourtesy; and Cherry, looking at the blunt brevity of the postal-card, feared that the high-sounding title of their new friend was adding to Lance's almost morbid sense of being in a different sphere from their surroundings. However, she had little time to think; for their only other guest, Gertrude May, had come by long promise to sleep at the Priory the night before; and the party were collecting in the hall, while the waggonet, a farm companion being allotted to the chestnut for the nonce, the Harewood phaeton, and Master Ratton with his basket, were marshalled at the door.