Grace looked in her direction with dubious curiosity.
'You don't mean, do you,' she asked, 'that you think any one else----'
'I don't think anything at all,' interrupted the girl hurriedly. 'I only say that Mr. Kenyon didn't--I mean that he isn't the right person to praise.'
But Lady Arbuthnot was not to be put off. 'Because that really is quite absurd, as I told George. And he admitted that he did not know of any one--not a single man who would have taken such a grave responsibility. Now do you? Tell the truth, Lesley! do you know any one?'
'Perhaps there was more than a single man,' suggested Lesley evasively, the knot in her thread becoming extremely troublesome.
Grace, from her chair, gave an irritated glance towards the window. 'My dear Lesley! you are not often so--so precise! As if it mattered to my argument if there were one or two! I wish you would leave off threading your needle, or whatever it is, and come here and be a little sympathetic. It means so much to me, you know--so, if you wish it, we will say two! Do you know of any two people who could and would do such a thing?'
Lesley folded up her work with great method, but remained where she was.
'Why should we complicate matters by saying two?' she asked pugnaciously. 'And after all, it wasn't--I mean it would not be such a very big thing. There must be lots of people in the world who could do it. Just think! even among the men one knows.'
'People who could, and would!' echoed Grace in the same tone. 'No! I don't know any one!' She paused, and added a trifle bitterly: 'I know one, who could; but then he wouldn't!--Mr. Raymond.'
'Mr. Raymond! Why should you say he wouldn't?' asked the girl swiftly. 'Why----?'