He interrupted her.
"I was going to say that it was all up with Hunt. He loses two hundred a year for his pains."
"Is that possible?" cried her Ladyship.
"It's the case," said Claude; "so everything is as it was, and as it should be."
Lady Caroline exhibited no further trace of her discomfiture.
"I wish we hadn't all interrupted each other," she laughed. "I was about to remark that the smoking-cap, which was originally intended to have what one may term a frieze, as well as a dado, of gold lace, will look much better without the frieze, so there's really no more to do to it. Take it, my dear, dear Jack, and wear it sometimes for my sake. And forgive a mother for what one said about Olivia's ride. Claude, I shall make another cap for you; meanwhile, let me congratulate you—again—on your noble conduct of to-day. Ah, you neither of you congratulate me on mine! Yet I am a woman, and I've kept your joint secret—most religiously—from nine in the morning to this very hour!"
CHAPTER XVI
"LOVE THE GIFT"
Her answer was altogether astonishing; she leant back in the boat and looked him full in the face. A quick flush tinged her own, and the incomparable eyebrows were raised and arched; but underneath there was an honest tenderness which Olivia was not the girl to conceal.