“I! what do you mean?”
Lady Tyrrell laughed again.
“Oh!” in a tone of relief, “I can explain all that to you. All the Strangeways family were at Rockpier the winter before you came, and I made great friends with Margaret Strangeways, the eldest sister. I wanted very much to hear about her, for she has had a great deal of illness and trouble, and I had not ventured to write to her.”
“Oh! was that the girl young Debenham gave up because her mother worried him so incessantly, and who went into a Sisterhood?”
“It was she who broke it off. She found he had been forced into it by his family, and was really attached elsewhere. I never knew the rights of it till I saw the brother to-night.”
“Very praiseworthy family confidence!”
“Camilla, you know I object to that tone.”
“So do most young ladies, my dear—at least by word.”
“And once for all, you need have no fancies about Mr. Lorimer Strangeways. I am civil to him, of course, for Margaret’s sake; and Lady Susan was very kind to me; but if there were nothing else against him, he is entirely out of the question, for I know he runs horses and bets on them.”
“So does everybody, more or less.”