The two fell in with this plan very readily. The only difference between them and the couples Evereld had lately been watching was that they walked much faster and talked a great deal more. For there was much to tell and to hear, and Evereld wanted to learn every detail of the unlucky Scotch tour, and was delighted above measure to think that their hero Macneillie should have come to the rescue so opportunely.
“We saw that his Company was here to-morrow for a week,” she said, blithely. “How little I dreamed that you were with him, Ralph. Mrs. Hereford is going to take us to see ‘The Winter’s Tale.’ I do hope you have a nice part.”
“Yes, I am Florizel. It’s a very nice part indeed,” said Ralph. “And there is such a jolly country dance. You’ll like that. You can’t think what a difference it is to be in a Company like this after travelling with those awful Skoots.”
“Which was the worst of the two, the husband or the wife?”
“Oh the husband was a swindler, but Mrs. Skoot passes description. How she did hate me, too! If I had had the money to do it I might easily have brought an action against her for abusive language. Towards the end of the time she was never quite sober and once at a railway station she was so hopelessly drunk that she tumbled headlong down a flight of steps, alighting exactly on the top of my bath, which she nearly knocked into a cocked hat! We know now that all the weeks they were not paying us a penny, so that many of us were half starved, she had money of her own hoarded away, and no doubt they are living on it comfortably enough.”
“What became of that poor little Ivy Grant?”
“She stayed for a week with my old landlady and then managed to get into another travelling company, where she seems to be getting on well. The Professor died just after her return. He was no protection to her, poor old man, in fact it was quite the other way. She had to support him, he was invalided and a confirmed opium-eater. Still it seems lonely for Ivy. She is a very plucky little girl though, and will, I fancy, get on well in the profession. Now tell me about yourself. How did you get to know Mrs. Hereford? and who is she?”
“She is the married sister of my great friend at school, Bride O’Ryan; you will see Bride when we go back to tea, and I know you’ll like her. Every one likes her, she is such fun and she is always so good-tempered. Mrs. Hereford lives partly in Ireland, but most of the year in Grosvenor Square because her husband is in Parliament. And Bride will live with her now that she has left school. They were all left orphans, and Mrs. Hereford, who was a good deal older than the others, brought them up. I never knew anyone so good and delightful as she is.”
“I can’t think where I heard the name of Hereford just lately,” said Ralph musingly.
“Perhaps it was from Mr. Macneillie, I think Mrs. Hereford has met him once or twice.”