‘From Usk, Mary?’ she repeated; ‘are you sure? I don’t expect anybody this evening. What is the name?’
‘Oh, I’m quite sure, ma’am. They said their name was Owen, and they asked particularly for Miss Llewellyn, the housekeeper.’
‘What is the young woman like?’
‘Rather nice-looking, ma’am, that is, for a person from the country. I’m sure they’re not Londoners from the way they speak, though I don’t know where Usk is; but she’s got nice curly hair, much the colour of yours, ma’am.’
‘Well, well, show them into the housekeeper’s room, Mary, or stay, as his lordship is away, you may as well put them in the library, and say I will be with them in a minute.’
As soon as the servant had left her, Miss Llewellyn ran up to her bedroom, with her hand tightly pressed over her heart, and commenced to rapidly pull off her ornaments, and to take a plainer dress out of her wardrobe.
‘If it should be a message from mother,’ she murmured breathlessly, as she stripped off her finery, ‘they mustn’t go back and say they found me like this. Dear, dear mother. She would break her heart to find out the meaning of it all.’
She threw the black lace dress upon the bed, and selecting a quaker-looking fawn cashmere from her wardrobe, put it on instead, and having somewhat smoothed down her rippling hair, she tied on a black silk apron, and took her way down to the library. She opened the door with a beating heart, for she had begun to fear lest the strangers might prove to be the bearers of bad news to her, but the moment she set eyes on the figure of the young woman, she gave vent to an exclamation of surprise and delight, and rushed into her extended arms.
‘Hetty! Hetty!’ she cried hysterically, ‘my own dear sister! Oh, how is it you are in London? Why did you not tell me you were coming? You have not brought bad news, have you? Oh, don’t tell me that mother is ill, for I couldn’t bear it.’
‘No, Nell, no!’ exclaimed the younger sister, ‘they are all as well at home as can be. Mother and father are just beautiful, and the crops first-rate. But we—that is, Will and I—thought we would give you such a grand surprise. We have such news for you! You’d never guess it, Nell! Don’t you see who’s this with me? William Owen, our old play-mate! Well, he’s my husband. We were married the day before yesterday.’