"Why marry him if she despises him so much?" asked Caroline of herself. "There is surely no law to make her do this?"
Dennis came up to give her a helping hand, and told her that Mrs. Lancing wanted to go downstairs with the children.
"She's not fit to stand, that she isn't," said the maid; "but she'll go through the lunch somehow, and then she'll have to rest." Here Dennis exhibited, with great pride and excitement, the beautiful watch that Mr. Haverford had given her.
"There hasn't no one been forgotten," she said; "he is a proper sort of man! This is a happy Christmas for us, my dear."
Indeed, Dennis's aspect was entirely changed. She seemed to have grown a little fat, and Betty quickly discovered that she had on a new gown, apparently an amazing event.
Miss Graniger followed the children and their mother downstairs.
It made her heart thrill to see the way Haverford turned to greet Camilla. He was evidently sharply concerned about Mrs. Lancing's indisposition, but he did not fuss her, and she stood with both children clinging to her as she exchanged a few words with him.
At lunch-time Caroline found herself seated next to him. Betty was on his other side.
"Look after Miss Graniger, please, Rupert," Mrs. Brenton had said to him, and he took up the duty in a literal sense.
"This is a typical English Christmas dinner," he said to her once. He tried to make her smile and talk, but Caroline had no command of words. She felt dazed with the myriad sensations that encircled her about.