So when Gertrude proposed walking to Abbotstoke Church in the afternoon she readily agreed, perceiving that it was far more because Cocksmoor was too obvious a resort than for the sake either of Flora, flowers for decoration, or even of Dickie, who could not be refused to his uncle for this sorrowful holiday.
And when George Rivers returned to the charge, and again promised to show the Alps through the Mont Cenis tunnel, Gertrude accepted—accepted definitively! Yes, she would go, and she talked fast and eagerly of the pleasures she anticipated.
But when walking home with Ethel, she did not utter one voluntary word.
'What time did you say young Underwood was coming?' asked the Doctor at breakfast next morning.
'He did not say the time,' said Ethel.
'Which?' asked Gertrude.
'Lancelot,' said Ethel, who had put off the announcement in hopes of doing it naturally till she had grown absolutely nervous about it.
'Not for advice?' in a startled voice.
'Can no one come here but for advice?'
'He was ill last year.'