But the next morning she was as bright and as gloriously beautiful as ever, and when she descended to breakfast the butler and footman waited on her as assiduously as if she had been a countess, and the coachman sent up to her for orders concerning the carriage, and the cook submitted the menu for that day’s dinner for her approval. As soon as her breakfast was concluded she gave an interview to Lord Ilfracombe’s stud groom, and went with him into the forage and stable accounts, detecting several errors that he had passed over, and consulting him as to whether his master might not, with some benefit to himself, try another corn merchant. So much had she had identified herself with all the earl’s interests that she more than once used the plural pronoun in speaking of the high prices quoted to her.
‘This will never do, Farningham,’ she said once; ‘we cannot afford to go on with Field at this rate. His charges are enough to ruin a millionaire. With four horses here, and eleven down at Thistlemere, we shall have nothing left to feed ourselves soon.’
‘Very well, ma’am,’ replied the man, ‘I’ll get the price list from two or three other corn merchants, and submit them to you. I don’t fancy you’ll find much difference, though, in their prices. You see, with the long drought we have had this season, hay has risen terribly, and oats ain’t much better; they’re so poor I’ve had to increase the feeds. Will his lordship be home for the hunting, ma’am?’
‘Oh, yes, I hope so sincerely, Farningham. He says he shall miss the grouse this year; but I quite expect him for the partridge-shooting. And after that he is sure to go down to Thistlemere for the hunting season. He couldn’t live without his horses for long, Farningham.’
‘No, ma’am, he’s a true nobleman for that is his lordship, and I guessed as much; but I’m glad to hear you say so, for there’s no heart in getting horses in first-rate order if no one’s to see ’em or use ’em. Good morning, ma’am, and I hope we shall see his lordship soon again, for all our sakes,’ which hope Miss Llewellyn heartily echoed.
CHAPTER III.
The morning was beautiful, though very warm, and Miss Llewellyn thought she could not spend it better than in taking a long drive. She felt as if she could not stay in the house. Some intuitive dread or fear, she knew not which, possessed her—as if she had an enemy in ambush, and anticipated an assault. When she tried to analyse this feeling, she laid it to the proximity of her relations and the possibility of their hearing more of her domestic life than she wished them to know.
‘But it is all because Ilfracombe is not at home,’ she said to herself. ‘If he were here, he would laugh me out of such a piece of folly. As if they possibly could hear. Who could tell them, when they know no one in London. I am a silly fool.’
When she entered the open carriage, and the footman attended her orders, she told him to drive as far into the country as possible.
‘Tell Jenkins to go right away from town, up to Hampstead, or out to Barnes. I want all the fresh air I can get.’