In due time Lionel came back, having been absent nearly a fortnight. He arrived not long before dinner, when Miss Scott was not about, having disappeared to her own quarters for the evening, as usual.
When he had almost finished dressing, Claude dropped in on his way down. Lionel had always been more intimate with him than with Jocelyn.
“The Lady has done it this time,” observed the younger brother, sitting on the arm of an easy-chair before the fire.
“Has the new governess come?” asked Lionel absently.
“Yes, and I rather think she has come to stay for life. Avoid looking at her if you meet her, my dear chap. The Gorgon wasn’t in it with her. She would turn a Bengal tiger to stone.”
Lionel looked at his brother with curiosity, for he had not often heard him express himself so strongly. “What’s the matter with her?”
“I forget all the things,” answered Claude; “but I know that she has a big blotch on one cheek and a red nose, and she looks like a skinned hare, and she’s got a hump on one shoulder, and she’s lame, and——”
“Good gracious!” Lionel’s jaw had positively dropped at the description, and he was staring at his brother in a most unusual way.
“I forgot,” continued Claude: “one eye wanders——”
“I say,” interrupted Lionel, in a tone of irritation, now that his first astonishment had subsided, “it’s not good enough, you know. My credulity was badly injured when I was young. What’s the new governess’s name?”