"Oh, yes, pleasant enough," Lulu answered carelessly; "but father drives so slowly and carefully—he always does, you know—that he allowed several carriages to pass us on the road, the consequence being that we were almost smothered with dust, and that made me cross. I told father I wished I had refused to come, and that the dust was simply ruining my new hat, but he wouldn't drive faster."
Mrs. Wallis glanced at the hat in question—pink, to match Lulu's frock, with a bunch of white ostrich feathers as trimming—and wondered who had purchased it for her, or if it was her own taste.
"Would you like to go up to your room my dear," she enquired, "or will you stay where you are and talk to me? Tea is at half-past five."
"Oh, I'll stay where I am, please."
"Then you had better remove your hat. Joy will take it upstairs for you, won't you, Joy?"
"Oh, yes," Joy answered, coming forward and receiving the wonderful article of millinery, which Lulu handed to her without a word of thanks. She carried it gingerly out of the room, whilst Celia drew nearer to the visitor and joined in the conversation.
By the time Joy came back her sister and Lulu were doing most of the talking, whilst Mrs. Wallis was listening, a faint smile of amusement upon her lips. Lulu had been giving them a graphic description of her music-master at school, and though she had ridiculed his peculiarities, it had not been unkindly done.
"You have Miss Pring's niece for a governess, don't you?" she said. Receiving an affirmative answer she rattled on: "I know old Miss Pring—father knew her years ago, when she was a rich woman—and I can't bear her. Such an interfering old creature she is! Father will take me to see her sometimes—I never wish to go!—and to-day he insisted on calling at Home Vale on his way here, and the very first words Miss Pring said, when she saw me, were: 'Bless the child, she looks like a cockatoo!' I never felt angrier in my life."
There was a general laugh at this, for Lulu looked so aggrieved; her listeners guessed, with truth, that Miss Pring's observation had been directed at the feathers in her hat. Celia was the only one who had an answer ready.
"It was very rude of her," she said.