‘No; but I grieve to say your unnatural grand-parents don’t want you! Grandmamma is nervous about having you without mamma. What did we do last time we were there, Fly?’
‘Don’t you remember, daddy? they said there was nothing for me to ride to the meet, and you and Griffin put the side-saddle on Crazy Kate, and we went out with the hounds, and I’ve got the brush up in my room!’
‘I don’t wonder grandmamma is nervous,’ observed Lady Merrifield.
‘Will you be nervous, Lily,’ said Lord Rotherwood, ‘if this same flyaway mortal is left on your hands till the 9th?’
Dinner, manners, silence before company, and all, could not repress a general scream of ecstacy, which called forth the reply. ‘I should think you and her mother were the people to be nervous.
‘Oh! my lady has been duly instructed in Merrifield perfections, and esteems you a model mother.’
The children’s nods and smiles said ‘Hear, hear!’
‘Well, you’ve got it all in her own letter,’ continued Lord Rotherwood. ‘You see, they’ve got a caucus at High Court, and a dinner, and I must go up there on Monday; but if you’ll keep this dangerous Fly—’
‘I can answer for the pleasure it will give,’
‘Well then, I’ll come back for her by the 9th, and you’ve Victoria’s letter, haven’t you?’