And Stelfox, with a glance at his master’s resolute face, made submission.
The day following the accident being Boxing-day, Mrs. Graham-Shute asked and obtained permission from her host to extend her visit, and that of her family, until the day after. It was impossible to go out, much less to travel, on such a day as that, she said.
In spite of this impossibility, however, Mrs. Graham-Shute stayed out nearly the whole of the morning, looking for a suitable house in which she could settle with her family, to fulfil her kind promise of “looking after dear cousin John.” Of course, it was the worst day she could have chosen for her expedition, as the agents’ offices were closed, and the caretakers were making a holiday. But, being a woman of great valour and determination, just when these qualities were unnecessary and inconvenient, she ferreted out the unhappy agents, and made them unlock their books for her benefit, and she chivied the caretakers away from their dinners to attend her over the empty houses, only to declare at the end of the day’s work that she had never met such an uncivil set of people in her life—never!
Mrs. Graham-Shute found, moreover, cause of bitter complaint in other directions. The rents were absurdly high, for one thing. She had imagined that in a hole of a place like this you would be able to pick up a house, with thirteen rooms and a nice garden, for next to nothing. Indeed, to hear her talk, one would have imagined that she looked upon the honour done to a dwelling by her residence within its walls as an equivalent to rent and taxes. The poor lady was quite hurt at the local ingratitude. It was enough, as she said at luncheon-time, to the amusement of dear cousin John, to make one stay in town.
“Why on earth don’t you, my dear?” murmured her husband, who had strenuously opposed the proposed flight to this clubless and remote region, and who knew very well that the love of change had much to do with his wife’s determination to move; and the belief that she would be a great person down here, while in town it had been forced upon her that she was only a very small one indeed.
His wife looked at him reproachfully.
“My dear, you know as well as possible that we must economise for the sake of the children,” she said, with a sigh and a glance at her cousin, as if sure that he would approve her sentiments.
It was fashionable to economise, so Mrs. Graham-Shute was always talking about it; and there it ended. Her husband had suffered from this idiosyncrasy, and he went on in an aggrieved tone:
“Why can’t you begin at Bayswater, and save moving expenses? Everything’s cheaper in town than here, and you’ve something to talk about besides the health of the pigs.”
But Maude went breezily on: