"The service was delightful this morning," she observed; "the decorations were charming and the congregation so attentive. I suppose you know every one in the village, Mrs. Arthur."
"I ought to, my lady. I am Firmingham bred and born."
"And a very good representative of the place," said Leah, kindly. "The villagers are really quite nice-looking--especially the men."
"If you saw my son----"
"Was he in church this morning?" asked Lady Jim, who knew very well that the young man was with his ship in Chinese waters. "I saw rather a handsome young fellow in one of the pews, but he looked ill. Of course, I thought him handsome," she went on carelessly, and with a soft laugh: "he was the image of my husband."
Mrs. Arthur looked rather nervous. "There is only one young man hereabouts who resembles Lord James," she observed, "and I do not wonder you saw the likeness, my lady. Harold Garth is like Lord James now, and is such as his Grace was in his youth."
"Oh!" Leah's eyes opened. "Do you mean to say----?"
"Nothing, my lady--nothing;" and Mrs. Arthur's hands fiddled nervously with the gold chain she wore round her neck. Then, woman-like, she went on to contradict herself. "Harold Garth has lately returned from Canada, where he went to farm."
"Garth? I seem to know the name!"
"I don't know who can have mentioned it to you, my lady. He is the only Garth in the district, and I daresay you never saw him before."