"Did he mention my name?" Celia asked, in a voice that sounded positively hoarse with anxiety.
"No, but of course he meant you when he spoke of 'that silly, little niece of mine.' He couldn't have meant anyone else."
Celia was silent, her busy mind going over the conversation Lulu had repeated to her, and she came to the conclusion that Sir Jasper had referred, not to her, but to Joy. She drew a breath of intense relief, never for a moment reflecting upon the injustice of allowing her sister to remain beneath the weight of Sir Jasper's displeasure, a weight which should rightly have been hers to bear.
"I hope I shall never hear anything of 'Lady Isabella's Treachery' again!" Lulu cried. "I am beginning to hate the book as much as I once liked it. I wish heartily I had never lent it to you, Celia. I ought not to have done so. I see that now. I felt so mean and small when Sir Jasper was talking to me."
Celia glanced at her friend in surprise, for she had never known her anything but self-complacent before. There was a flush, born of shame, on Lulu's face as she recalled Sir Jasper's looks and words, and for the moment, at any rate, she was really out of conceit with herself. She had been told she was 'a foolish, forward chit,' and almost she was inclined to believe that Sir Jasper had named her truly, though it filled her with a sense of the keenest humiliation to own it even to herself.
When Lulu left the Moat House with her father on the following morning, there was no cordiality lacking in her host's words of farewell, but, she was conscious of the opinion he had formed of her, and her manner was wonderfully meek and subdued; so much so, indeed, that her father noticed it, and inquired if anything was wrong. She reassured him upon that point; but she did not tell him of her interview with Sir Jasper on the preceding afternoon, for that would have entailed the confession that she had set his wishes at defiance, and had not only finished reading "Lady Isabella's Treachery" herself, but had lent it to her friend, and the latter fact she knew it would not be easy for him to forgive.
[CHAPTER XI.]
AN AFTERNOON OF STORM.
IT was with deep concern that Mrs. Wallis I noted that Sir Jasper appeared to have taken a dislike to her younger daughter; and as she had not the faintest idea that he believed his suspicion that Joy had persistently lied to him had been confirmed, she considered his conduct both unjust and ungenerous. He seldom took any notice of Joy nowadays, and when he did, it was generally to cast some sarcastic remark at her; consequently she kept out of his sight as much as possible, whilst Celia, as soon as she was able to get about again, saw more of him than ever. This state of affairs was not likely to heal the breach between the sisters, and it daily widened, so that when Eric arrived at the Moat House for the summer holidays he was not long in discovering that his favourite sister was in disgrace with Sir Jasper, and that she was far from being at her ease with Celia.
"Why is it, mother?" he questioned Mrs. Wallis. "What has poor Joy done?"