To this, a little stiffly, he said—
"If you are not satisfied with what has been arranged, you can instruct a lawyer to go into the matter. I will give you the address of a very good man."
And Caroline had frowned, and then smiled.
"You know perfectly well I am not grumbling at you. The idea is ridiculous!"
"Are you not?" he had queried, with a smile. "Well, it sounded uncommonly like it."
On the whole, however, they were on the best of terms, though they never progressed to intimacy.
April was well advanced when the children's mother arrived unexpectedly at Yelverton.
She had travelled up from Devonshire without pausing for rest in town, and declared that she was perfectly well; but Agnes Brenton was shocked at her appearance—shocked, too, and pained by the change in her manner.
That quiet, apathetic langour was gone; Camilla was all jerks and nerves. She seemed strung up to the highest pitch of excitement. She talked incessantly, and smoked nearly all the time. This was a new habit.
It appeared she had not come to stay at Yelverton. She was due at Lea Abbey.