“Here, Miss Brandt, if it pleases you. I was just about to ask what you would like for your breakfast.”
“But the Baron and Baroness—”
“O! they started for the manufactory two hours ago. Her ladyship is a very early riser when at home, and they have some four miles to drive.”
“The manufactory!” echoed Harriet, “do you mean where they make the boots and shoes?”
“Yes! There is a manufactory in Germany, and another in England, where the boots and shoes are finished off. And then there is the shop in Oxford Street, where they are sold. The Baron’s business is a very extensive one!”
“So I have understood, but what good can Madame Gobelli do there? What can a woman know about such things?”
Miss Wynward shrugged her shoulders.
“She looks after the young women who are employed, I believe, and keeps them up to their work. The Baroness is a very clever woman. She knows something about most things—and a good deal that were better left unknown,” she added, with a sigh.
“And does she go there every morning?”
“Not always, but as a rule she does. She likes to have a finger in the pie, and fancies that nothing can go on properly without her. And she is right so far that she has a much better head for business than the Baron, who would like to be out of it all if he could!”