"O, I see! Yes, that's all settled. I couldn't get anything nearer than Windsor; but I've got a very pretty little box there. Charley Chesterton rents it for the year--he's there with the Blues, you know; but Mrs. Chesterton's going away, and Charley will go into barracks for the week, and we can have the house. It's a stiffish figure, but they can get any amount that week, you know."
"O yes, of course, that don't matter. And it's a nice house, you say?"
"Very pretty little place indeed--do very well for us."
"Yes. And Mrs. Chesterton's been living there? She's a nice woman, ain't she?"
"Yes, she's nice enough, as women go. But what has she to do with it?"
"Well--I mean to say, it's a sort of crib that--don't you know--one could ask a lady to stop in?"
"O--h!" exclaimed Gilbert Lloyd, with a very long face--"that's it, is it?"
"No, no, 'pon my soul, you don't understand what I mean," said Lord Ticehurst hurriedly. "Fact of the matter is, Lady Carabas wants to come down for the Cup-day; and she'll bring a friend, of course; and I told her about my having a house somewhere in the neighbourhood for the week, and thought she and the other lady, and their maids and people, could--don't you see--stay. What do you think?"
"My dear Etchingham, whatever you wish, of course shall be carried out. It is not for me to teach etiquette to any lady, especially to Lady Carabas, who despises conventionality, and who, besides, is quite old enough to take care of herself. I should have thought that for a lady to come to a bachelor's house--however, of course she'll have her maid and her footman, and some one to act as her âme damnées--her sheep-dog. Who is the sheep-dog, by the way?"
"I don't know about sheep-dog," said Lord Ticehurst, flushing very red; "but Lady Carabas said the lady she proposed to do me the honour to bring to my house was--was Miss Grace Lambert."