[CHAPTER XVIII]
THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE CALAIS NOBLE
"I am so glad Martin has decided to take his family away this summer," remarked Mrs. Marsh, at the breakfast table one morning, a few days after her brother had agreed to Cousin Becky's plan for a holiday. "I met Mary and the children in the town yesterday, and they were quite excited at the prospect of turning their backs on Beaworthy for a few weeks—poor things! I daresay I should feel the same if I had not had a change for years. Cousin Becky is to accompany them to Norfolk, I hear."
"It's through Miss Trent that they're going," Mr. Marsh replied. "A friend of hers has lent them a furnished house, it appears—the Mill House, at Lynn. Your brother asked me if I knew the place. I remember I chanced to visit it once from Cromer."
"Who can Cousin Becky's friend be, I wonder?" said Mrs. Marsh musingly, her face expressive of surprise and curiosity, for this was news to her. She had only had a few words with her sister-in-law on the previous day, and had heard no details in connection with the projected holiday.
"Ah, that's a secret," Edgar informed her. He was very inquisitive upon the point himself. "Roger says Cousin Becky hasn't told anyone—not even Uncle Martin. The lady the house belongs to doesn't wish her name to be known."
"How extraordinary!" exclaimed Mrs. Marsh, "And how very mysterious! A lady, you say?" She paused as her son assented, a pucker of thought between her brows. By-and-by she proceeded, turning to her husband, "John, have you considered at all where we shall go this summer? It is quite time we settled upon a place."
"I have not thought about it," Mr. Marsh admitted. "In fact, I do not want to leave home during August, this year."
"But Edgar must have a change of air in his holidays, he has not been looking well lately," Mrs. Marsh reminded him, "and the school re-assembles in the middle of September."
"Well, why not send him with his cousins?" suggested Mr. Marsh. "I think that would be a good plan. Then you and I could go to Scotland later in the autumn. How would you like that, eh?"