The deepest anxiety in her heart was momentarily quelled, when Mrs. Lambert had told her that there had been no further signs of a lack of truthfulness in Cecil.
He seemed to be happy, and although he told Rose that he did not like games, she could see no mental reservations behind the ingenuous, uplifted gaze of his brown eyes.
Maurice Lucian was frequently in London, and always came to see her. She received him in the sitting-room above the shop, introduced him to the old pawnbroker and to Felix Menebees, and was pleased when Uncle Alfred chose to annex him as a player of backgammon.
“A sensible, likeable fellow, and I have no doubt that he will be brought to a knowledge of the Word in due season,” pronounced Uncle Alfred, who never took for granted the status of any fellow-creature as a Christian.
Cecil and Rose spent his short Christmas holidays at Squires, and she received the placid congratulations of his grandparents on the great improvement which they alleged to have taken place in the little boy.
Ford and Diana were at their own house, and Rose did not see them at all.
She took Cecil back to Hurst herself, and returned to Ovington Street.
There, two days later, she received a letter from Lord Charlesbury, to tell her that he was just returned from Paris and to ask whether he might call upon her.
His letter was dated from a London club.