Her mother was very much a Prussian, and supposed to be in hiding owing to the revolution--she was not a popular lady. The girl had been at school in England, because her father wished it, then the War came. She was shifted from one German family to another. When trouble and internment came she was moved. Being a young person of importance, she became a perfect white elephant to the powers that be, and was finally handed over to the wardship of Sir Marmaduke Shard, who thought that he had solved the riddle when he sent her to Woodrising in the charge of Lady Shard's old servant.
It was manifestly impossible to let her go about or to let her identity be known; the country people would have been furious. Until she could be sent back to her own people, she must be put in some quiet place.
The result of Sir Marmaduke's clever plan has been told in this story. He took the Countess and Mrs. Chipman away with him next day. Woodrising knew them no more, and Mrs. Trewby became less bilious, but no one was told what happened to the Countess, even Lady Shard never knew, and as for Auntie A., she had forgotten about the matter. Charles had a fit, and when he recovered she had a plan for making hens all lay their eggs at the same hour every day, being of course an immense saving of labour for everyone. Mrs. Ensor had "no opinion" of it; she was extra busy, as Reuben was just beginning to walk again on his mended ankle.
When this strange hurricane cloud passed, it left the sky of the Bell House family blue and clear again. Peace came back, and the days were the same as before that stormy petrel disturbed life.
Pamela returned joyously to the study of Girl Guide rules, but admitted that it is perhaps as well to be careful about the nature and extent of your "good turns".
She often wondered about the "Countess", and would immensely have liked to know her eight names, and what the double "A" stood for. She never did. Mollie Shard knew nothing; she heard the story from the Romillys when she came down, and the only time she ever saw the Countess was that morning, very early, when she mistook her for Pamela.
So that is the story of Pam and the Countess, from first to last, with its grief, misunderstanding, and danger. Whether anything more will ever be known, or whether Pam will ever meet her "double" again, of course no one can say. For the present, the story has ended happily.
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAM AND THE COUNTESS ***